Wikipedia:Notability (politicians)/failed

For the actual guideline, see Wikipedia:Notability (people)#Politicians and judges.

Right now, the criteria for notability for politicians are rather confused. Aside from the multiple mentions requirement, there are the following statements

“ Political figures holding or who have held international, national or statewide/provincewide office, and members and former members of a national, state or provincial legislature. (For candidates for office, see the ongoing discussion at Wikipedia:Candidates and elections.)

Major local political figures who receive (or received) significant press coverage. Just being an elected local official does not guarantee notability. ”

This is bad for several reasons. First off, it offers very little guidance, and secondly, it's very North-America-centric. There are also a significant biases towards recentism and towards the major industrialized nations (and their subnational units) regarding political notability. The mayor of an obscure town in China of 450,000 people affects as many people as the mayor of Oakland, California, which has a similar population, but the mayors of Oakland get more coverage here. (Even the ones who weren't celebrities first.) With that in mind, I'd like to propose the following guideline:

Proposed notability criteria for politicians

Political figures who have received press coverage by news media from outside the area the person represents or governs or other independent coverage sufficient to meet WP:N on their own are not the subject of this guideline. They are notable per the requirements of WP:N already. This guideline is intended to set a bar where sources for media mentions or other independent coverage is likely to be difficult to obtain, either because the local media is not in English or is not readily available online.

Any political figure who meets any of the guidelines below is considered inherently notable, and an article on such a person should not be deleted on grounds of notability. (It may still be deleted for intractable WP:BLP problems, or lack of a reliable source that the person even holds the office, or for being a campaign page for the person, etc.)

1. Heads of state and heads of government: The current and former heads of state and heads of government of all independent nations regardless of size, of all dependent nations/colonies which later became independent nations, and all dependent nations/colonies with a population (at the time the person served in office) of over 100,000 people, are notable.
   • Examples: all Prime Ministers and the Governors-General of Canada. The PMs and Governors-General of Newfoundland, during those periods in which Newfoundland was a separate Crown Colony and had a population of over 100,000.
2. Candidates for head of national government: Any candidate for the office of head of a national government who received at least 20% of the popular vote or 1,000,000 popular votes. Any leader of a significant attempt at a coup d'etat.
   • Examples: Ralph Nader, Henry Wallace, Robert M. La Follette, Sr. in the U.S., Jean Saint-Josse and Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour in France, and for coup attempts, Gennady Yenayev, Pedro Carmona, Brigadier Arif Abd ar Razzaq. Eugene Debs would not qualify under these criteria, as he never received more than 1,000,000 votes, but he's notable through the normal notability criteria, and thus should not be deleted.
3. Heads of subnational units: The current and former titular executives and heads of government of subdivisions of nations, for subnational units which have a population of over 500,000, or the subnational unit is not a part of any other subnational unit, and the total national population is over 20,000,000.
   • Therefore, all U.S. states, Canadian provinces, British counties, French departments, Mexican states, German Länder, etc. qualify, but counties in the U.S., and other such subdivisions only qualify if they meet the population requirement.
4. Candidates for head of subnational government:Any candidate for head of government of a subnational unit who received either at least 1,000,000 popular votes, or at least 20% of the popular vote in a subnational unit which have a population of over 500,000, or the subnational unit is not a part of any other subnational unit, and the total national population is over 20,000,000.
   • Therefore, Tom McClintock qualifies for getting over 1,000,000 votes in the California recall election, 2003.
5. Heads of major national government departments: People who run (or have run) major government subdivisions, such as Ministries or Departments of Defence, Labor, etc., in national governments, where the national population is 5,000,000 or greater. This includes the executive "cabinet" offices who report directly to the national executive and/or play a major role in advising the national executive.
6. National legislative leaders: People who are a current or former leader of the government/majority party or coalition in a national legislature, or the leader of significant opposition parties/coalitions. Significant means either second-largest, or at least 10% of the popular vote or 10% of the number of seats.
   • Eli Yishai of Shas would qualify based on the results of the Israeli legislative election, 2006, but not the Israeli legislative election, 2003.
7. Sub-national legislative leaders: People who are a current or former leader of the government/majority party or coalition in a sub-national legislature, or the leader of significant opposition parties/coalitions, where the subnational unit has a population of over 1,000,000. Significant means either second-largest, or at least 20% of the popular vote or 20% of the number of seats.
8. National legislators: Any current or former member of a national legislative body, where either the member represents at least 200,000 people, or the average member in the body represents at least 100,000 people.
9. Sub-national legislators: Any current or former member of a sub-national legislative body, where the subnational unit is either not a part of a larger subnational unit or where the population of the subnational unit is at least 5,000,000; and either the member represents at least 500,000 people, or the average member in the body represents at least 250,000 people.
10. Judges of the highest national court: Any current or former member of the highest national court of appeals or constitutional court.

Explanation of criteria

The criteria listed above have been informed by two issues: historical bias and geographic bias. There is a strong bias in Wikipedia towards recent events, and currently living people. To counteract that, the proposal explicitly defines as notable any person who has met the criteria. There is also a strong bias in Wikipedia towards events and people from North America and (western) Europe. While some part of this bias reflects availability of sources, and can't be rectified here, this proposal attempts to rectify the bias by treating all nations equally, and by placing population limits for notability in certain cases. A person who runs a city of a half million people should be considered notable enough for Wikipedia, regardless of where that city is. If (s)he's done enough to be more notable, or garnered enough press attention, then there will be a longer article.

Criterion 1: Any head of a national government is notable. Hopefully this is not controversial in general. Of course, there will be controversies over whether this secessionist movement was actually a nation, or over whether that warlord was actually the head of the national government during the period of civil war. I've also explicitly not mentioned "governments-in-exile", but I'd welcome suggestions.

Criterion 2: People who almost became heads of government are generally notable. Minor also-rans and spoiler candidates are not generally notable just for having run, but anyone who gets 20% of their country, or a million people to vote for them is notable enough.

Criterion 3: Big subnational units, and subnational units of big countries, are pretty important, as are their leaders. Smaller ones, not so much, thus the population limits.

Criterion 4: Significant also-rans are pretty important, but not so much as the people who won, thus the higher population limits.

Criterion 5: In big countries, the cabinet leaders wield quite a lot of real power, and thus the officeholders become notable merely by being there.

Criterion 6: In some cases, the national legislative leader is the head of government, and the leader of the opposition is the significant also-ran. But in countries with presidential systems that have effective legislatures, the leaders of the legislature have a significant impact on what happens in that country.

Criterion 7: Similar to criterion 3.

Criterion 8: The bigger the country, and the fewer the number of legislators, the more impact any given one has. I'd like to think of some wording which would exclude purely rubber-stamp legislatures like the Supreme Soviet but would include unelected or partially-elected bodies with actual power, like the House of Lords or Hong Kong's LegCo.

Criterion 9: Similar to criterion 7.

Criterion 10: This should be self-evident, like criterion 1. I suppose in some very small countries, the judges may not do anything earthshaking, and in some dictatorships, the judges may be as much a rubber-stamp as the legislature, but in general, judges of a nation's highest court have enough impact to be notable.