Wikipedia:Notability (politics)

This notability guideline has been established to reflect consensus on the notability of articles closely related to politics and government. Subjects that fall under this guideline include, but are not limited to; politicians and activists, political parties, certain government agencies, and civil servants.

Applicable policies and guidelines

Further information: Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons and Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not § Wikipedia is not a soapbox or means of promotion

Political topics on Wikipedia have historically been considered one of the most prone to WP:BATTLEGROUND conduct. This is why users who edit in this field should always keep in mind all the WP:FIVEPILLARS, but they should especially focus on ensuring all content is verifiable and WP:NPOV.

While no topic is inherently notable just for being important, it is true that most important topics can be considered notable since reliable sources are likely to cover them. Politics and government are some such topics that very likely to receive coverage.

All information included in Wikipedia, including articles about sports, must be verifiable. In addition, the subjects of standalone articles should meet the General Notability Guideline. The guideline on this page provides bright-line guidance to enable editors to determine quickly if a subject is likely to meet the General Notability Guideline. Information about living persons must meet the more stringent requirements for those types of articles.

Subjects that do not meet the politics-specific criteria outlined in this guideline may still be notable if they meet the General Notability Guideline or another subject specific notability guideline.

Politicians

Basic criteria

The following are presumed to be notable:

• Politicians and judges who have held international or national office, or have been members of legislative bodies at those levels. This also applies to people who have been elected to such offices but have not yet assumed them.
• Major local political figures who have received significant press coverage outside their own region.

Just being an elected local official, or an unelected candidate for political office, does not guarantee notability, although such people can still be notable if they meet the general notability guideline.

International office holders

The holder of a position on the international level which is relatively comparable to a national office should be treated as if they held such country-level role for the purposes of notability (ie. the members of Pan-African Parliament are comparable to the parliamentarians of South African and thus are generally notable).

• Political figures who have been elected, appointed, or otherwise selected at the national cabinet level are generally regarded as notable and likely to receive significant coverage. This includes heads of state or government, members of national legislators or judiciary, and high profile diplomats.

• In the case of diplomats, generally for any diplomat who meets the WP:GNG or WP:ANYBIO criteria, it is presumed that an article about them is merited. Other notable diplomats may include those who have received significant coverage in crafting a bilateral or multilateral agreement, or received significant coverage related to a notable diplomatic event (i.e. Trent Affair).

If an individual who is, or was, the "head of mission" meets the criteria in a well-respected essay (such as WP:SOLDIER) an individual biography article can be created. Otherwise, a redirect to another article (such as a list) is sufficient (this would be similar to how some municipalities have a list of former mayors embedded within them, but the office itself doesn't automatically confer notability upon the office holder (see WP:POLOUTCOMES)).

Local politicians

• Municipal politicians are not inherently notable just for being in politics, but neither are they inherently non-notable just because they are in local politics. Each case is evaluated on its own individual merits. Mayors of cities of at least regional prominence have usually survived AfD, although the article should say more than just "Jane Doe is the mayor of Cityville". Mayors of smaller towns, however, are generally deemed not notable just for being mayors, although they may be notable for other reasons in addition to their mayoralty (e.g. having previously held a more notable office). Note that this criterion has not generally been as restrictive as the criterion for city councillors. City councillors and other major municipal officers are not automatically notable, although precedent has tended to favor keeping members of the main citywide government of internationally famous metropolitan areas such as Toronto, Chicago, Tokyo, or London. Losing candidates for municipal election are not considered inherently notable just for their candidacy and are generally deleted unless previous notability can be demonstrated.
• American county-level legislators are considered to be similarly not-inherently notable just like municipal politicians.
• Local politicians whose office would not ordinarily be considered notable may still clear the bar if they have received national or international press coverage, beyond the scope of what would ordinarily be expected for their role. For example, a small-town mayor or city councillor who was the first LGBT person ever elected to office in their country, or who emerged as a significant national spokesperson for a political issue, may be considered notable on that basis. Note that this distinction may not simply be asserted or sourced to exclusively local media; to claim notability on this basis, the coverage must be shown to have nationalized or internationalized well beyond their own local area alone.

Candidates

• Candidates who are running or unsuccessfully ran for a national legislature or other national office are not viewed as having inherent notability and are often deleted or merged into lists of campaign hopefuls, such as Ontario New Democratic Party candidates in the 1995 Ontario provincial election, or into articles detailing the specific race in question, such as 2010 United States Senate election in Nevada. Note that such articles are still subject to the same content policies as any other article, and may not contain any unsourced biographical information that would not be acceptable in a separate article.
• Losing candidates for office below the national level who are otherwise non-notable are generally deleted. They are not moved to user space for fear of establishing a precedent that any premature article about an as-yet-unelected candidate for office can be kept in draftspace pending election returns, effectively making draftspace a repository for campaign brochures (see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Siân Gwenllian.)

Political figures not elected to public office

• Sub-cabinet officials (assistant secretary, commissioner, etc.) are usually considered notable, especially if they have had otherwise notable careers.
• The spouse of the head of state or government is usually regarded as notable.
• Leaders of registered political parties at the national level are sometimes considered notable despite their party's lack of electoral success. Leaders of major sub-national (state, province, prefecture, etc.) level are usually deleted unless notability can be demonstrated for other reasons.
• Ambassadors are not considered inherently notable.
• Civil servants who assume a political office on an interim or caretaker basis are not considered notable just for having briefly held that office, even if holders of the office are normally considered notable.