Politics Stack Exchange is for objective questions about governments, policies and political processes.
It is not a place to advance opinions or debate, but rather for exchanging objective information about the policies, processes, and personalities that comprise the political arena. If you can't back it up, it's subjective.
For purposes of this site, we define politics as:
The end result of conflicting egos working themselves out through matters of policy. This means, the following items are on topic:
Matters of Policy:
Central to the idea of this site are the nuts and bolts of policies introduced by governments, presumably for the welfare of their citizens. As such, asking about the tangible benefits and costs of legislation is on topic
Working Themselves Out:
Processes are central to how legislation is made. Questions seeking to understand the rules and processes by which policy is made in various legislatures or ruling bodies (inside and outside of the United States!) are wholly on topic
Just to clarify, Macroeconomics is specifically on-topic. Most public policy questions involve economic matters, so if you just need to understand how an economic principle works, ask away!
Conflicting Egos:
In just about any policy of substance, there are particular personalities that are central to its understanding, as well as demographic data about supporters and opponents of legislation. Asking “Why is [insert person here] such a jerk?” is clearly off-topic - the answer is highly subjective, but asking “What groups of people tend to support X in her implementation of policy Y?” is answerable using polls, punditry, and other verifiable and reproducible sources.
If your question is rooted in one of these three pillars of politics, you’re probably on-topic. If your question (or answer!) is subjective, opinionated, or just not about one of these three things, we humbly suggest you look elsewhere for an answer to your query.
Please look around to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to ask and answer your own question.
If your question is not specifically on-topic for Politics Stack Exchange, it may be on topic for another Stack Exchange site. If no site currently exists that will accept your question, you may commit to or propose a new site at Area 51, the place where new Stack Exchange communities are democratically created.
For more help, see "What types of questions should I avoid asking?"