A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house). A double dissolution is tye only circumstance in which the entire Senate can be dissolve. Similar to the United States Congress, but unlike the British Parliament, Australia's two parliamentary houses generally have almost equal legislative power (the Senate cannot amend, although may reject outright, appropriation [money] bills, which must originate in the House of Representatives). Governments, which are formed in the House of Representatives, can be frustrated by a Senate determined to reject their legislation. If the conditions (called a trigger) are satisfied, the Prime Minister can advise the Governor-General to dissolve both houses of Parliament and call a full election. If, after the election, the legislation that triggered the double dissolution is stil...

 Magna Carta Libertatum (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms") commonly called Magna Carta (also Magna Charta; "Great Charter") is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on June 15, 1215. First drafted by Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through the council of 25 barons. Neither side stood behind their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons' War. After John's death, the regency government of his young son, Henry III, reissued the document in 1216, stripped of some of its radical content, in an unsuccessful bid to build political support for their cause. At the end of the war in 1217, i...

 The House of Lords Act 1999 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was given Royal Assent on November 11, 1999. The Act reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. For centuries, the House of Lords had included several hundred members who inherited their seats (hereditary peers); the Act removed such a right. However, as part of a compromise, the Act did permit ninety-two hereditary peers to remain in the House on an interim basis. Another ten were created life peers to enable them to remain in the House. The Act decreased the membership of the House from 1,330 in October 1999 to 669 in March 2000. As another result of the Act, the majority of the Lords were now life peers, whose numbers had been gradually increasing since the Life Peerages Act 1958. As of November 2019, there were 793 members of the House of Lords, of whom 26 were senior Church of England bishops, whose representation in the House is governed by the Bishoprics Act 1878. Prior t...

 The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege, and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy, as belonging to the sovereign and which have become widely vested in the government. It is the means by which some of the executive powers of government, possessed by and vested in a monarch with regard to the process of governance of the state, are carried out. In most constitutional monarchies, prerogatives can be abolished by Parliament as the courts apply the constitutional near-absolute of the supremacy of Parliament. In the Commonwealth realms, this draws on the constitutional statutes at the time of the Glorious Revolution when William III and Mary II were invited to take the throne. In the United Kingdom, the remaining powers of the royal prerogative are devolved to the head of government which for more than two centuries has been the Prime Minister; the benefits, equally, such as mineral rights in all go...

 Abraham (originally Abram) is the common patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the covenant of the pieces, the special relationship between the Hebrews and God; in Christianity, he is the spiritual progenitor of all believers, Jewish or Gentile; and in Islam he is seen as a link in the chain of prophets that begins with Adam and culminates in Muhammad. The narrative in the Book of Genesis revolves around the themes of posterity and land. Abraham is called by God to leave the house of his father Terah and settle in the land originally given to Canaan but which God now promises to Abraham and his progeny. Various candidates are put forward who might inherit the land after Abraham; and, while promises are made to Ishmael about founding a great nation, Isaac, Abraham's son by his half-sister Sarah, inherits God's promises to Abraham. Abraham purchases a tomb (the Cave of the Patriarchs) at Hebron ...

 Das Kapital also known as Capital. A Critique of Political Economy , is a foundational theoretical text in materialist philosophy, economics, and politics by Karl Marx. Marx aimed to reveal the economic patterns underpinning the capitalist mode of production in contrast to classical political economists like Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill. While Marx did not live to publish the planned second and third parts, they were both completed from his notes and published after his death by his colleague Friedrich Engels. Das Kapital is the most cited book in the social sciences published before 1950. In Das Kapital , Marx proposes that the motivating force of capitalism is in the exploitation of labor, whose unpaid work is the ultimate source of surplus-value. The owner of the means of production is able to claim the right to this surplus value because he is legally protected by the ruling regime through property rights and the legally established distri...

The Magnificat (Latin for "[My soul] magnifies [the Lord]") is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, the Canticle of Mary, and, in the Byzantine tradition, the Ode to the Theotokos. It is traditionally incorporated into the liturgical services of the Catholic Church and of the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Its name comes from the incipit of the Latin version of the text. The text of the canticle is taken from the Gospel according to St Luke (1:46-55) where it is spoken by Mary upon the occasion of her Visitation to her cousin Elizabeth. In the narrative, after Mary greets Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist, the latter moves within Elizabeth's womb. Elizabeth praises Mary for her faith (using words partially reflected in the Hail Mary), and Mary responds with what is now known as the Magnificat. The Magnificat is one of the eight most ancient Christian hymns and perhaps the earliest Marian hymn. Within the whole of Christianity, the canticle is most freque...