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Entering information about politicians, elected officials, civil servants, etc.
The types in the government domain were created so that all types of government, at all levels, could use the same schemata. When entering (or interpreting) information about politicians or other people who serve in a government, the central type is government position held. This is a compound value type that connects the various types necessary to describe a person’s time in office. The types it connects are: politician, government office or title, governmental body, governmental jurisdiction, legislative session, political district, political appointer, and date/time. Information can be entered starting from most of these types; this document describes how enter the data starting with a politician, but the same guidelines apply no matter where you start. More information about any of these types can be found by clicking the links above.
On the topic page of the person about whom you want to enter data, add the type “politician” (if it is not already there). Information about his or her government offices belongs in the “government positions held” property; opening this property for entry displays a number of sub-properties (these “sub-properties” are actually all properties of the “government position held” type):
- Office, position, or title: enter the name of the office, if the position has a distinct name or title (e.g., “Prime Minister of the United Kingdom”), or the person’s position if they are part of a larger body (“United States Senator”, “Member of the Ontario Legislative Assembly”). Please note that the title should be specific to the body or location governed, as in the examples above (United States Senator, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom). This is because each title is tied to a specific jurisdiction. If every country that has a position of “prime minister” used the same topic, there would be no way to know which person was prime minister of which country.
- Governmental body (if position is part of one): If (and only if) the position being entered is part of a body of people (such as a legislature), enter the name of the body here. Otherwise, it should be left blank.
- Jurisdiction of office: The area over which the office has jurisdiction. For executives (e.g., mayors, governors, kings), this is the city, county, province, country, etc. that they govern. For members of legislatures, this is the area that the legislature governs; the district or constituency which elected a legislator should go in the next property.
- Legislative Sessions: For members of a legislative body only. The legislative sessions in which this person held this seat. Enter a session even if the person only served part of the term (the "from" and "to" properties below can give more specific detail about partial terms).
- District represented (if position is district-related): If (and only if) the position is elected by a district, that should be entered here. This will apply primarily to members of legislatures. Districts, as represented here, are also known as constituencies and ridings in different countries. The district is any division that is smaller than the area over which the position has jurisdiction. For example, American senators are elected to a national office by a state; for these people, the state would be the district.
- Appointed by (if position is appointed): If the person was appointed to the position (as opposed to, for example, being elected, inheriting the position, or staging a coup), enter the name of the person or body that appointed him or her.
- From: Enter the date the person first took office.
- To: Enter the date that the person left office. Note that for people serving consecutive terms, this should be the final date. Individual terms are not represented.
