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Questions tagged [scope]

Questions about what is on-topic or off-topic and why.

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23 votes
3 answers
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What is a "push question"?

I've seen the term used, multiple times, in comments, as a reason to close a question, and in general I do not disagree with the closure. However, the official reason for the closure is never because &...
David Hammen's user avatar
  • 15.1k
20 votes
6 answers
253 views

Is political history within the scope of the site?

Political history is on topic on our sister site, History Stack Exchange, and questions about it are mainly under these two tags: political-history politics A category of questions being on topic ...
yannis's user avatar
  • 9,662
20 votes
2 answers
323 views

What should we do with the "why" questions?

We often get "why isn't X a case" questions, especially for USA. The problem with most1 such questions is that they are really two questions in one: "Why isn't there a law for X"? Which has one, ...
user4012's user avatar
  • 93.3k
20 votes
0 answers
271 views

Notice: Macroeconomics is officially in scope

Having spoken with the awesome Jon Ericson, I can officially state that the proposal to put questions of macroeconomics in scope is the consensus among the Community Managers. To wit: I talked ...
Affable Geek's user avatar
  • 16.3k
19 votes
2 answers
287 views

When are questions about flag identification on-topic?

Recently, a new user posted a question asking to identify a specific flag they saw in a documentary. While the question was answered, and stands at +7/-1, it accumulated 3 close votes as: "This ...
divibisan's user avatar
  • 26k
17 votes
4 answers
235 views

What should be considered opinionated?

Politics, by its nature, is a very controversial subject. We need to draw a distinct line on what will lead to a specific answer, and what will lead to controversy. Things like "Are conservatives ...
Nick122's user avatar
  • 101
17 votes
3 answers
353 views

Are frame challenges acceptable on Politics.SE?

I came across this question and answered it with a frame challenge that the statements the OP references are a rhetorical device more than actual beliefs. It's garnered some upvotes but wound up in ...
Jared Smith's user avatar
  • 8,706
16 votes
7 answers
687 views

Should we allow questions where we are attempting to apply the term "fascist" to a modern political figure?

Related to Why are we closing questions for being susceptible to opinion on a site about politics? but focused on a broader question raised by it. We have this question about Donald Trump, which is ...
Machavity's user avatar
  • 53.1k
15 votes
3 answers
136 views

Should we change the help center to mention that Political Theory is on-topic?

We have a number of questions tagged political-theory. They are generally questions with some philosophic component. They are not questions about any actual government, policy, process, group, etc. ...
indigochild's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
222 views

Can we stop it with the "are there conspiracy theories about X" questions?

Are there conspiracy theories about Pakistan? [It's (not?) coup'd by USA regularly.] Are there conspiracy theories about India? [It's (not?) an ethnostate.] Are there conspiracy theories about Russia? ...
264 champagne bottles on ice's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
326 views

Cutoff between Politics and History

At which time point the questions belongs to the History, and not to the Politics stackexchange? Is there a particular cutting point, for example 1989/91?
Cjxcz Odjcayrwl's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
200 views

Can "What did they say" be off-topic?

The linked question was closed as off-topic. It simply asked what Trump said on twitter before the content was deleted. Like it or not (for either reason) Donald Trump is for a few more days the ...
Jontia's user avatar
  • 25k
11 votes
2 answers
283 views

Politics vs Economics

There have been quite a few economics questions that have been asked here in the last week or so. Most of these questions are actually good economics questions but not really about political ...
SoylentGray's user avatar
  • 8,997
11 votes
0 answers
135 views

Are overly specific questions on-topic here?

For example, I have queries regarding a specific US Senate special election in Alabama in the 1930s? Specifically, I hope to get more information on the candidates and their vote shares. Can I check ...
Panda's user avatar
  • 46.7k
10 votes
2 answers
223 views

What is the best way to ask a genuine question when it is guaranteed to attract flame?

I'd like to ask a question in Politics.SE that, I promise, will be controversial because of its subject matter (yes, it's related to the Russo-Ukrainian war). My problem is that some of the answers ...
wrod's user avatar
  • 9,628
10 votes
3 answers
110 views

How localized should we go?

It seems inevitable that we'll have country specific questions as this question assumes: How should we tag country-specific questions? Where do we draw the line? We probably don't want moose-jaw-...
mootinator's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
173 views

(When) are the internal politics of religious organisations on topic?

We've recently had some questions about the Catholic Church which were primarily about its internal politics: Can the US Roman Catholic Bishops establish rules against the will of the Pope? Why is ...
JJJ's user avatar
  • 39.7k
10 votes
2 answers
338 views

(Why) are questions about what Rush Limbaugh or Fox News [personalities] say off topic?

Are these opinion makers/leaders not (highly) relevant politically? Some of them have a greater audience than many local politicians, whose sayings would undoubtedly be on-topic. And yes, these are ...
264 champagne bottles on ice's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
233 views

What is on topic for a reference request?

Introduction to reference requests The topic of references requests has come up a few times already, for example in these questions: Are requests for references on-topic? Are questions for ...
JJJ's user avatar
  • 39.7k
9 votes
4 answers
155 views

How to handle open-ended questions seeking opinion based answers

It is inevitable that questions like these will come up: What are the disadvantages of first-past-the-post electoral systems? What are the advantages/disadvantages of a mandatory voting system? How ...
Kevin Peno's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
85 views

Are questions purely about personal visa usage on-topic?

So there's two questions I wanted to contrast here Why do Mauritius passport holders have such easy visa access to so many countries? If you have a SMOM passport are you able to legally enter the ...
Machavity's user avatar
  • 53.1k
9 votes
1 answer
137 views

Are questions about the operation of organized crime on-topic?

Are questions about the policies, procedures, structures, or practices of organized crime gangs and syndicates on-topic? There has been some discussion on the difference between off-topic ...
Robert Columbia's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
218 views

Would this US Supreme Court question be on-topic here and likely to receive an answer?

In Law SE I've asked Between 1984 and 1994 US Supreme Court filings almost doubled but arguments nearly halved. Why? eighteen days ago. It was well received (+5 with 33 views) but so far not even a ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 16.9k
9 votes
2 answers
187 views

How can we handle questions that are dynamic and change over time?

Some questions are asked about concrete situation at a moment of time. For example What has trump accomplished in his first term?. As long as situation changes, answers may fade out. Maybe such "...
user2501323's user avatar
  • 11.8k
9 votes
3 answers
154 views

Are give-me-data-only questions on topic?

I was looking at this question earlier Sortable table or spreadsheet with full, detailed 2017 UK General Election results for every constituency And couldn't fit it within any of the following 3 ...
SleepingGod's user avatar
  • 8,457
9 votes
2 answers
119 views

Is this the right place to ask about UK Government policy on renaming "ministries" to "departments"?

I would like to ask the following. Why has the UK Government moved away from "Ministry of..." names? Traditionally, UK Government departments were named "Ministry of [blar]". For ...
James Geddes's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
81 views

How early is too early to answer a question evaluating a person or policy?

A user recently posted this question asking about what steps President Biden has taken so far to address climate change: On what steps from ecology plan have Joe Biden's administration already made ...
divibisan's user avatar
  • 26k
8 votes
1 answer
96 views

Are there guidelines about the topicality of local politics?

Most of the questions here are questions with a broad interest, covering national-level politics as well as the politics of first-order administrative divisions such as states, provinces, and ...
Robert Columbia's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
123 views

Are questions about International Sport Federations decisions on-topic on Politics.SE?

I am thinking about large organizations like FIFA who have a great influence in sports and deal with lots of money at global level. I expect that many of its mechanisms to resemble those found in ...
Alexei's user avatar
  • 53.5k
8 votes
1 answer
175 views

Is this question better on the History SE?

Have countries ever forced an international flight to divert in order to arrest a wanted person, prior in to the Belarus incident? Sure it's a current political event, but it's also asking for a ...
Allure's user avatar
  • 37.8k
8 votes
1 answer
114 views

Is political science on topic?

I am reading a paper that claims (without citation) that triangularity in international relations has been criticised by political scientists as vague. I have searched the papers that have cited ...
Ludi's user avatar
  • 461
8 votes
1 answer
133 views

I'm not sure if my question is appropriate for SE.Politics

I am new to politics stack exchange and I just wanted to verify whether my question is appropriate for SE.Politics or not. Its about a policy proposal. I'm genuinely trying to do research and see if ...
Ankit's user avatar
  • 156
8 votes
1 answer
130 views

Is asking about the legality of the MoU signed between California and China on topic?

I've recently requested this question – Is the Memorandum of Understanding between California and China legal to be migrated to Law.SE. This's asking for the legality of the MoU signed which is ...
Panda's user avatar
  • 46.7k
8 votes
0 answers
126 views

When is question about concrete person's political views off-topic? [duplicate]

Based on comments on the question: Has Sergei Lukyanenko revealed something about his political opinions since 2012. Questions about public people are probably sometimes on topic. I mean, if ...
TGar's user avatar
  • 456
7 votes
6 answers
574 views

Should we limit the use of the term "dog whistle"?

We've previously discussed flagging dog whistles, but I think we should discuss the use of the term "dog whistle" in questions and answers. tim gave this answer which says Generally when ...
Machavity's user avatar
  • 53.1k
7 votes
2 answers
137 views

Are "Is Wikipedia right" questions welcome?

I have previously asked: How do we feel about "General Reference" questions that are somewhat answered on Wikipedia? The answers and comments to that question basically boiled down to ...
user4012's user avatar
  • 93.3k
7 votes
5 answers
225 views

Is a question innately political just because it involves a politician?

Questions such as this question about golf or (possibly slightly more controversially) this question regarding pronouns don't appear to be have a solid connection to politics and the political process ...
Alex Robinson's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
131 views

United States history vs government: where is the line?

Many question about the US government can also be viewed as questions about history because the US is in a (fairly) unique position of being governed by the same Constitution as the one which was ...
grovkin's user avatar
  • 6,954
7 votes
2 answers
127 views

(should we have) Rules on “why isn’t” questions

Currently (as far as I know) there are no rules on “why doesn’t xxx have yyy or do zzz”, and the answer (most of the time) is just “why would they?” “There’s no reason to.” “They didn’t see a point to ...
Ekadh Singh's user avatar
  • 3,108
7 votes
2 answers
137 views

Are requests for references on-topic?

Some SE sites seem to dislike requests for references. Are we considering the following two questions on-topic: What is a good book which covers in-depth topic XYZ [from ABC angle]? Seems like very ...
user4012's user avatar
  • 93.3k
7 votes
1 answer
137 views

Are questions about implausible hypothetical situations on-topic?

Specific example: What would happen if no one voted in the next General Election? On one hand it's about a political process and could be considered on-topic. On the other hand, it's an extremely ...
user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
124 views

To what extent are policy questions on or off topic?

Most of the questions asked so far are about the political process ("What criteria does a US Presidential candidate need to meet in order to appear on the ballot?"). Some ask about the details of ...
Casebash's user avatar
  • 804
7 votes
3 answers
131 views

Is politics limited to politics of public governments, or also of other bodies?

Wikipedia defines Politics as: Politics (from Greek politikos "of, for, or relating to citizens") as a term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, ...
gerrit's user avatar
  • 49.3k
6 votes
2 answers
126 views

Should questions prompting brainstorming new solutions to political problems be in-scope?

In comments on a question related to fake news, a moderator responded to my edit trying to narrow the question with the following: The problem with this question is that this is a question&...
Burt_Harris's user avatar
  • 8,081
6 votes
3 answers
73 views

Which candidate(s)/party comes closes to representing these views? On topic or not?

I recently asked the question What US 2016 presidential candidate meets my criteria? based on the precedent set by the highly upvoted question Given my list of convictions, which US party(ies) should ...
lazarusL's user avatar
  • 11.1k
6 votes
2 answers
98 views

How do we feel about "General Reference" questions that are somewhat answered on Wikipedia?

I was going to ask "What are the main differences between Objectivism and Libertarianism", but the Wiki already has a fairly good summary ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism_and_Objectivism )...
user4012's user avatar
  • 93.3k
6 votes
3 answers
155 views

Are "is X constitutional" questions in-scope?

We have so far had a couple of questions of the form "is 'X' constitutional?" (as applied to USA). Ex: Is the PATRIOT ACT constitutional? Should such questions be in scope at all? The cons include ...
user4012's user avatar
  • 93.3k
6 votes
1 answer
119 views

Why isn't this site called “Government and Politics”?

When I hear the word "politics" I think of strategies to acquire power to affect changes in the law, but the scope of this site seems to be much broader. All questions regarding the mechanics of ...
Richard Hansen's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
102 views

"Why did this happen?" Questions

Recently a question of the form "Why is country X against project Y of country Z" was closed (and now deleted by its maker) as off topic as requiring non-public sources. That we shouldn't guess is ...
user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
134 views

Is the ratio of moderation for politics.se considerably higher than the original stack exchanges? And can we maintain the required ratio indefinitely?

After reading various politics.meta questions, the following question has occurred to me: Is the ratio of moderation:site content for this stack exchange considerably higher than the original hard-...
LateralFractal's user avatar