Government
Government is a key part of any society and culture. Learn more about different types of government, politics and civic issues.
What Is a Postal Code? A Brief History of Zip Codes
From Human Skulls to Handguns, the Paris Lost and Found Has Seen It All
Running Antarctica's 'Penguin Post Office': Coolest Job Ever?
Democracy vs. Republic: What's the Difference?
How the Census Works
Birth Tourism: A Controversial Road to Citizenship
What to Do if Your Vote Is Challenged on Election Day
Why Does the U.S. House of Representatives Have Only 435 Seats?
Do Campaign TV Ads Really Change Voters' Minds?
Is the U.S. Prepared to Handle Natural Disasters During the COVID-19 Pandemic?
The Defense Production Act Was Designed for Emergencies Like Coronavirus
The Waffle House Index Is at Code Red; That's Not Good
Who Are the Sanctioned Russian Oligarchs?
How British Parliament Works
Nearly 1,000 U.S. Streets Named After MLK Jr. What Are They Like?
Is Taiwan a Country? It Depends on Which Criteria You Use
How Do Equity and Equality Differ?
How Is a 19th-century Obscenity Law Being Used to Ban the Abortion Pill?
How Does the U.S. Government Declassify Top Secret Documents?
How Does the U.S. Classify Its Most Sensitive Documents?
Why Data Encryption Remains a Really Complex Issue
Learn More / Page 6
Born Melanija Knavs in Yugoslavia, the former model is only the second foreign-born first lady of the United States.
Donald Trump proposed stripping flag burners of citizenship. Regardless of the fact that flag-burning is legal, whether the United States can even do that is tricky.
The intelligence community has been keeping the U.S. president up to date on world events since 1946 with the President's Daily Brief. Why would a president skip it?
By John Donovan
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The powers wielded by the U.S. president have waxed and waned over the years.
By Oisin Curran
The law actually says 'yes', but precedent says 'no.' Here's why.
By Dave Roos
Democracy requires citizen participation. But sometimes emailing and signing petitions can feel like shouting into a black hole. What's your best strategy to be heard?
Voting on a Tuesday in November has been a U.S. tradition since the 1840s, but the timing makes it difficult for many people to exercise their right to vote. What are states doing about it?
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Donald Trump may be the most prominent Trump, but he's not the only one. His polarizing candidacy is affecting ordinary people who share the surname.
A new study says you may get different treatment options depending on your doctors' political beliefs? What's a patient to do?
By Dave Roos
Think that a debate is intense? When tempers rise, elected officials can land more than metaphorical blows, as these examples from the past year alone show.
By Chris Opfer
A low-level cabinet member becomes U.S. president when everyone else is killed during a State of the Union address. It's the plot of a new TV show â and based in reality.
By Dave Roos
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Think the Trump/Biden presidential campaign is the strangest? It'll seem par for the course when you see what crazy things have happened in previous elections.
Think you have an original idea for a Constitutional amendment? Are you sure it hasn't been brought up one of the other 11,000 times?
If the millennial generation is behind some of the most innovative developments in tech and business, why not hand these young citizens the keys to the country, too?
By Chris Opfer
What started as a hashtag has gone global. Is the group's loose, ever-evolving structure a benefit or a drawback â or both?
By Chris Opfer
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How did the idea of "don't kill the messenger" turn into a modern international standard?
Cell phone video has inspired millions of people to rally against issues of police brutality. It's a powerful tool for exposing injustices. And it's not going anywhere.
By Dave Roos
After all, every president who could have lived there has, but is it mandatory?
By John Donovan
Splits with the European Union have happened before, but that doesn't mean the U.K.'s Brexit will be easy, or even have much in common with past instances.
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Why does health care cost so much in the U.S.? And why, for all that money, isn't the population any healthier? These are just some of the big questions in the debate over health care costs.
Whether it's poll taxes, literacy tests, ID laws or limited polling hours, the U.S. has a long-running history of coming up with ways to restrict citizens' voting rights.
We often think of the civil rights movement as just part of the 1960s. On Martin Luther King Day, we explore some civil rights issues going on in the U.S. today.
By Alia Hoyt
"Immigration" has become a loaded word in the U.S. and many other places. But what is the truth about immigration in America? Is it a good thing or not? We sort out the facts from the fictions.
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Ever felt a pang of guilt on, say, Election Day when you skipped the voting booth to go to dinner? The 'bread and circuses' concept of being pacified by food and entertainment — and forgoing civic duty — goes back to Roman times.
While the FDA originated amid the Civil War, it took a 20th century novel about the horrors of meatpacking to convince the government to officially regulate what goes into our bodies. How does the FDA keep us safer these days?