title: Maui

text: At the height of the whaling era (1843–1860), Lahaina was a major center. In one season over 400 ships visited with up to 100 anchored at one time in Lāhainā Roads. Ships tended to stay for weeks rather than days, fostering extended drinking and the rise of prostitution, against which the missionaries vainly battled. Whaling declined steeply at the end of the 19th century as petroleum replaced whale oil.


title: Maui

text: Kamehameha's descendants reigned until 1872. They were followed by rulers from another ancient family of chiefs, including Queen Liliʻuokalani, deposed in the 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii by American business interests. One year later, the Republic of Hawaii was founded. The island was annexed by the United States in 1898 and made a territory in 1900. Hawaiʻi became the 50th U.S. state in 1959.


title: Maui

text: In 1937, Vibora Luviminda trade union conducted the last strike action of an ethnic nature in the Hawaiʻian Islands against four Maui sugarcane plantations, demanding higher wages and the dismissal of five foremen. Manuel Fagel and nine other strike leaders were arrested, and charged with kidnapping a worker. Fagel spent four months in jail while the strike continued. Eventually, Vibora Luviminda made its point and the workers won a 15% increase in wages after 85 days on strike, but there was no written contract signed.


title: Maui

text: Maui was centrally involved in the Pacific Theater of World War II as a staging center, training base, and rest and relaxation site. At the peak in 1943–1944, more than 100,000 soldiers were there. The main base of the 4th Marine Division was in Haiku. Beaches were used to practice landings and train in marine demolition and sabotage.


title: Maui

text: The island experienced rapid population growth through 2007, with Kīhei one of the most rapidly growing towns in the United States (see chart, below). The island attracted many retirees, adding service providers for them to the rapidly increasing number of tourists. Population growth produced strains, including traffic congestion, housing unaffordability, and issues of access to water.


title: Maui

text: Most recent years have brought droughts, resulting in the Īao aquifer being drawn at possibly unsustainable rates above 18 million U.S. gallons (68,000 m) per day. Recent estimates indicate that the total potential supply of potable water on Maui is around 476 million U.S. gallons (1,800,000 m) per day, virtually all of which runs off into the ocean.


title: Maui

text: Water for sugar cultivation comes mostly from the streams of East Maui, routed through a network of tunnels and ditches hand dug by Chinese laborers in the 19th century. In 2006, the town of Paia successfully petitioned the county against mixing in treated water from wells known to be contaminated with both 1,2-dibromoethane and 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane from former pineapple cultivation in the area ("Environment Hawaii", 1996). Agricultural companies have been released from all future liability for these chemicals (County of Maui, 1999). In 2009, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and others successfully argued in court that sugar companies should reduce the amount of water they take from four streams.


title: Maui

text: In 1974, Emil Tedeschi of the Napa Valley winegrower family of Calistoga, California, established the first Hawaiian commercial winery, the Tedeschi Winery at Ulupalakua Ranch.


title: Maui

text: In the 2000s, controversies over whether to continue rapid real-estate development, vacation rentals in which homeowners rent their homes to visitors, and Hawaii Superferry preoccupied residents. In 2003, Corey Ryder of the Earth Foundation gave a presentation regarding the unique situation on Maui, "Hazard mitigation, safety & security", before the Maui County Council. In 2009, the county approved a 1,000-unit development in South Maui in the teeth of the financial crisis. Vacation rentals are now strictly limited, with greater enforcement than previously. Hawaii Superferry, which offered transport between Maui and Oahu, ceased operations in May 2009, ended by a court decision that required environmental studies from which Governor Linda Lingle had exempted the operator.


title: Maui

text: In 2016, Maui residents convinced officials to switch to organic pesticides for highway applications after they found out that label requirements for glyphosate formulations were not being followed.


title: Maui

text: The major industry in Maui is tourism. Other large sectors include retail, health care, business services, and government. Maui also has a significant presence in agriculture and information technology.


title: Maui

text: The unemployment rate reached a low of 1.7% in December 2006, rising to 9% in March 2009 before falling back to 4.6% by the end of 2013 and to 2.1% in January, 2018.


title: Maui

text: Maui's primary agriculture products are corn and other seeds, fruits, cattle, and vegetables. Specific products include coffee, macadamia nuts, papaya, flowers and fresh pineapple. Historically, Maui's primary products were sugar and pineapple. Maui Land & Pineapple Company and Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company (HC&S, a subsidiary of Alexander and Baldwin Company) dominated agricultural activity. In 2016, sugar production ended. Haliimaile Pineapple Co. grows pineapple on former Maui Land & Pineapple Co. land.


title: Maui

text: In November 2014, a Maui County referendum enacted a moratorium on genetically engineered crops. Shortly thereafter Monsanto and other agribusinesses obtained a court injunction suspending the moratorium.


title: Maui

text: Most technology organizations that are located on the island populate the Maui Research & Technology Park which is located on the coast of Maui. This region takes up 400 acres of Kihei which is home to many information technology organizations and companies such as the Maui High-Performance Computing Center, Maui Research and Technology Center, and Maui Brewing Company. The Park includes areas designated for research, such as offices, labs, and data centers. The Maui Research & Technology Park was opened in 1991 to create a mixed-use community, though only a portion of the area is dedicated to this mixed-use community. The mixed-use community was updated in the Master Plan in 2016.


title: Maui

text: The Maui High Performance Computing Center at the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing observatory in Kīhei is a United States Air Force research laboratory center that is managed by the University of Hawaii. It provides more than 10 million hours of computing time per year to the research, science, and military communities.


title: Maui

text: Another promoter of high technology on the island is the Maui Research and Technology Center, also located in Kihei. It is a program of the High Technology Development Corporation, an agency of the State of Hawaii, whose focus is to facilitate the growth of Hawaii's commercial high-technology sector.


title: Maui

text: Maui is an important center for advanced astronomical research. The Haleakala Observatory was Hawaii's first astronomical research and development facility, operating at the Maui Space Surveillance Site (MSSS) electro-optical facility. "At the 10,023-foot summit of the long-dormant volcano Haleakala, operational satellite tracking facilities are co-located with a research and development facility providing superb data acquisition and communication support. The high elevation, dry climate, and freedom from light pollution offer virtually year-round observation of satellites, missiles, man-made orbital debris, and astronomical objects."


title: Maui

text: Snorkeling is one of the most popular activities on Maui, with over 30 beaches and bays to snorkel at around the island. Maui's trade winds tend to come in from the northeast, making the most popular places to snorkel on the south and west shores of Maui. Having many mountains on Maui helps with the trade winds not being able to reach the beaches located on the south and west of the island, making the ocean water very clear.


title: Maui

text: Maui is a well-known destination for windsurfing. Kanaha Beach Park is a very well-known windsurfing spot and may have stand-up paddle boarders or surfers if there are waves and no wind. Windsurfing has evolved on Maui since the early 1980s when it was recognized as an ideal location to test equipment and publicize the sport.


title: Maui

text: One of the most popular sports in Hawaii. Ho'okipa Beach Park is one of Maui's most famous surfing and windsurfing spots. Other famous or frequently surfed areas include Slaughterhouse Beach, Honolua Bay, Pe'ahi (Jaws), and Fleming Beach. The north side of Maui absorbs the most swell during the winter season and the south and west in the summertime. Due to island blocking, summer south swells tend to be weak and rare.


title: Maui

text: The big tourist spots in Maui include the Hāna Highway, Haleakalā National Park, Iao Valley, and Lahaina.


title: Maui

text: The Hāna Highway runs along the east coast of Maui, curving around mountains and passing by black sand beaches and waterfalls. Haleakalā National Park is home to Haleakalā, a dormant volcano. Snorkeling can be done at almost any beach along the Maui coast. Surfing and windsurfing are also popular in Maui.


title: Maui

text: The main tourist areas are West Maui (Kāanapali, Lahaina, Nāpili-Honokōwai, Kahana, Napili, Kapalua) and South Maui (Kīhei, Wailea-Mākena). The main port of call for cruise ships is located in Kahului. There are also smaller ports located at Lahaina Harbor (located in Lahaina) and Maalaea Harbor (located between Lahaina and Kihei). Lahaina is one of the main attractions on the island with an entire street of shops and restaurants which leads to a wharf where many set out for a sunset cruise or whale watching journey. Known locally as Lahainatown, it has a long and diverse history from its Hawaiian population beginnings to the arrival of travelers and settlers and its use as a significant whaling port.


title: Maui

text: Maui County welcomed 2,207,826 tourists in 2004 rising to 2,639,929 in 2007 with total tourist expenditures north of US$3.5 billion for the Island of Maui alone. While the island of Oahu is most popular with Japanese tourists, the Island of Maui appeals to visitors mostly from the U.S. mainland and Canada: in 2005, there were 2,003,492 domestic arrivals on the island, compared to 260,184 international arrivals.


title: Maui

text: While winning many travel industry awards as "Best Island In The World" in recent years concerns have been raised by locals and environmentalists about the overdevelopment of Maui. Visitors are being urged to be conscious of reducing their environmental footprint while exploring the island. A number of activist groups, including "Save Makena" have gone as far as taking the government to court to protect the rights of local citizens.


title: Maui

text: Throughout 2008 Maui suffered a major loss in tourism compounded by the spring bankruptcies of Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines. The pullout in May of the second of three Norwegian Cruise Line ships also hurt. "Pacific Business News" reported a $166 million loss in revenue for Maui tourism businesses.


title: Maui

text: The Maui Bus is a county-funded program that provides transportation around the island for nominal fares.


title: Maui

text: There are two hospitals on the island of Maui. The first, Maui Memorial Medical Center, is the only acute care hospital in Maui County. It is centrally located in the town of Wailuku approximately 4 miles from Kahului Airport. The second, Kula Hospital, is a critical access hospital located on the southern half of the island in the rural town of Kula. Kula Hospital, along with Lanai Community Hospital (which is located in Maui County but on the neighboring island of Lanai), are affiliates of Maui Memorial Medical Center. All three hospitals are open 24/7 for emergency access. Although not technically a hospital or emergency room, Hana Health Clinic (or Hana Medical Center), located in the remote town of Hana on the southeastern side of the island, works in cooperation with American Medical Response and Maui Memorial Medical Center to stabilize and transport patients with emergent medical conditions. It too is open 24/7 for urgent care and emergency access.


title: Poaceae

text: Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and pasture. The latter are commonly referred to collectively as grass.


title: Poaceae

text: With around 780 genera and around 12,000 species, the Poaceae is the fifth-largest , following the Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Fabaceae and Rubiaceae.


title: Poaceae

text: The Poaceae are the most economically important plant family, providing staple foods from domesticated cereal crops such as maize, wheat, rice, barley, and millet as well as feed for meat-producing animals. They provide, through direct human consumption, just over one-half (51%) of all dietary energy; rice provides 20%, wheat supplies 20%, maize (corn) 5.5%, and other grains 6%. Some members of the Poaceae are used as building materials (bamboo, thatch, and straw); others can provide a source of biofuel, primarily via the conversion of maize to ethanol.


title: Poaceae

text: Grasses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks. The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath. The leaf grows from the base of the blade, an adaptation allowing it to cope with frequent grazing.


title: Poaceae

text: Grasslands such as savannah and prairie where grasses are dominant are estimated to constitute 40.5% of the land area of the Earth, excluding Greenland and Antarctica. Grasses are also an important part of the vegetation in many other habitats, including wetlands, forests and tundra.


title: Poaceae

text: Though they are commonly called "grasses", groups such as the seagrasses, rushes and sedges fall outside this family. The rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the order Poales, but the seagrasses are members of order Alismatales. However, all of them belong to the monocot group of plants.


title: Poaceae

text: Grasses may be annual or perennial herbs, generally with the following characteristics (the image gallery can be used for reference):


title: Poaceae

text: The stems of grasses, called culms, are usually cylindrical (more rarely flattened, but not 3-angled) and are hollow, plugged at the nodes, where the leaves are attached. Grass leaves are nearly always alternate and distichous (in one plane), and have parallel veins. Each leaf is differentiated into a lower sheath hugging the stem and a blade with entire (i.e., smooth) margins. The leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with silica phytoliths, which discourage grazing animals; some, such as sword grass, are sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called the ligule lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath.


title: Poaceae

text: Flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in spikelets, each having one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two (or sometimes fewer) bracts at the base, called glumes, followed by one or more florets. A floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the lemma—and one internal—the palea. The flowers are usually hermaphroditic—maize being an important exception—and mainly anemophilous or wind-pollinated, although insects occasionally play a role. The perianth is reduced to two scales, called "lodicules", that expand and contract to spread the lemma and palea; these are generally interpreted to be modified sepals. The fruit of grasses is a caryopsis, in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall.


title: Poaceae

text: Grass blades grow at the base of the blade and not from elongated stem tips. This low growth point evolved in response to grazing animals and allows grasses to be grazed or mown regularly without severe damage to the plant.


title: Poaceae

text: Three general classifications of growth habit present in grasses: bunch-type (also called caespitose), stoloniferous, and rhizomatous.


title: Poaceae

text: The success of the grasses lies in part in their morphology and growth processes and in part in their physiological diversity. There are both C3 and C4 grasses, referring to the photosynthetic pathway for carbon fixation. The C4 grasses have a photosynthetic pathway, linked to specialized Kranz leaf anatomy, which allows for increased water use efficiency, rendering them better adapted to hot, arid environments.


title: Poaceae

text: The C3 grasses are referred to as "cool-season" grasses, while the C4 plants are considered "warm-season" grasses.


title: Poaceae

text: Although the C4 species are all in the PACMAD clade (see diagram above), it seems that various forms of C4 have arisen some twenty or more times, in various subfamilies or genera. In the "Aristida" genus for example, one species ("A. longifolia") is C3 but the approximately 300 other species are C4. As another example, the whole tribe of Andropogoneae, which includes maize, sorghum, sugar cane, "Job's tears", and bluestem grasses, is C4. Around 46 percent of grass species are C4 plants.


title: Poaceae

text: The name Poaceae was given by John Hendley Barnhart in 1895, based on the tribe Poeae described in 1814 by Robert Brown, and the type genus "Poa" described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus. The term is derived from the Ancient Greek .


title: Poaceae

text: Grasses include some of the most versatile plant life-forms. They became widespread toward the end of the Cretaceous period, and fossilized dinosaur dung (coprolites) have been found containing phytoliths of a variety that include grasses that are related to modern rice and bamboo. Grasses have adapted to conditions in lush rain forests, dry deserts, cold mountains and even intertidal habitats, and are currently the most widespread plant type; grass is a valuable source of food and energy for all sorts of wildlife.


title: Poaceae

text: Before 2005, fossil findings indicated that grasses evolved around 55 million years ago. Finds of grass-like phytoliths in Cretaceous dinosaur coprolites from the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) aged Lameta Formation of India have pushed this date back to 66 million years ago. In 2011, fossils from the same deposit were found to belong to the modern rice tribe Oryzeae, suggesting substantial diversification of major lineages by this time.


title: Poaceae

text: Wu, You & Li (2018) described grass microfossils extracted from the teeth of the hadrosauroid dinosaur "Equijubus normani" from northern China, dating to the Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous approximately 113–100 million years ago, which were found to belong to primitive lineages within Poaceae, similar in position to the Anomochlooideae. These are currently the oldest known grass fossils.


title: Poaceae

text: The relationships among the three subfamilies Bambusoideae, Oryzoideae and Pooideae in the BOP clade have been resolved: Bambusoideae and Pooideae are more closely related to each other than to Oryzoideae. This separation occurred within the relatively short time span of about 4 million years.


title: Poaceae

text: According to Lester Charles King the spread of grasses in the Late Cenozoic would have changed patterns of hillslope evolution favouring slopes that are convex upslope and concave downslope and lacking a free face were common. King argued that this was the result of more slowly acting surface wash caused by carpets of grass which in turn would have resulted in relatively more soil creep.


title: Poaceae

text: There are about 12,000 grass species in about 771 genera that are classified into 12 subfamilies. See the full list of Poaceae genera.


title: Poaceae

text: The grass family is one of the most widely distributed and abundant groups of plants on Earth. Grasses are found on every continent, including Antarctica. The Antarctic hair grass, "Deschampsia antarctica" is one of only two plant species native to the western Antarctic Peninsula.


title: Poaceae

text: Grasses are the dominant vegetation in many habitats, including grassland, salt-marsh, reedswamp and steppes. They also occur as a smaller part of the vegetation in almost every other terrestrial habitat.


title: Poaceae

text: Grass-dominated biomes are called grasslands. If only large, contiguous areas of grasslands are counted, these biomes cover 31% of the planet's land. Grasslands include pampas, steppes, and prairies.


title: Poaceae

text: Many types of animals eat grass as their main source of food, and are called "graminivores" – these include cattle, sheep, horses, rabbits and many invertebrates, such as grasshoppers and the caterpillars of many brown butterflies. Grasses are also eaten by omnivorous or even occasionally by primarily carnivorous animals.


title: Poaceae

text: Grasses dominate certain biomes, especially temperate grasslands, because many species are adapted to grazing and fire.


title: Poaceae

text: Grasses are unusual in that the meristem is near the bottom of the plant; hence, grasses can quickly recover from cropping at the top.


title: Poaceae

text: The evolution of large grazing animals in the Cenozoic contributed to the spread of grasses. Without large grazers, fire-cleared areas are quickly colonized by grasses, and with enough rain, tree seedlings. Trees eventually outcompete most grasses. Trampling grazers kill seedling trees but not grasses.


title: Poaceae

text: Grasses are, in human terms, perhaps the most economically important plant family. Their economic importance stems from several areas, including food production, industry, and lawns. They have been grown as food for domesticated animals for up to 6,000 years and the grains of grasses such as wheat, rice, maize (corn) and barley have been the most important human food crops. Grasses are also used in the manufacture of thatch, paper, fuel, clothing, insulation, timber for fencing, furniture, scaffolding and construction materials, floor matting, sports turf and baskets.


title: Poaceae

text: Of all crops grown, 70% are grasses. Agricultural grasses grown for their edible seeds are called "cereals" or "grains" (although the latter term, when used agriculturally, refers to both cereals and similar seeds of other plant species, such as buckwheat and legumes). Three cereals—rice, wheat, and maize (corn)—provide more than half of all calories consumed by humans. Cereals constitute the major source of carbohydrates for humans and perhaps the major source of protein; these include rice (in southern and eastern Asia), maize (in Central and South America), and wheat and barley (in Europe, northern Asia and the Americas).


title: Poaceae

text: Sugarcane is the major source of sugar production. Additional food uses of sugarcane include sprouted grain, shoots, and rhizomes, and in drink they include sugarcane juice and plant milk, as well as rum, beer, whisky, and vodka.


title: Poaceae

text: Bamboo shoots are used in numerous Asian dishes and broths, and are available in supermarkets in various sliced forms, in both fresh, fermented and canned versions.


title: Poaceae

text: Many species of grass are grown as pasture for foraging or as fodder for prescribed livestock feeds, particularly in the case of cattle, horses, and sheep. Such grasses may be cut and stored for later feeding, especially for the winter, in the form of bales of hay or straw, or in silos as silage. Straw (and sometimes hay) may also be used as bedding for animals.


title: Poaceae

text: Grasses are used as raw material for a multitude of purposes, including construction and in the composition of building materials such as cob, for insulation, in the manufacture of paper and board such as oriented structural straw board. Grass fiber can be used for making paper, biofuel production, nonwoven fabrics, and as replacement for glass fibers used in reinforced plastics. Bamboo scaffolding is able to withstand typhoon-force winds that would break steel scaffolding. Larger bamboos and "Arundo donax" have stout culms that can be used in a manner similar to timber, "Arundo" is used to make reeds for woodwind instruments, and bamboo is used for innumerable implements.


title: Poaceae

text: ""Phragmites australis"" (common reed) is important for thatching and wall construction of homes in Africa.


title: Poaceae

text: Grasses are used in water treatment systems, in wetland conservation and land reclamation, and used to lessen the erosional impact of urban storm water runoff.


title: Poaceae

text: Grasses are the primary plant used in lawns, which themselves derive from grazed grasslands in Europe. They also provide an important means of erosion control (e.g., along roadsides), especially on sloping land. Grass lawns are an important covering of playing surfaces in many sports, including football (soccer), American football, tennis, golf, cricket, softball and baseball.


title: Poaceae

text: Ornamental grasses, such as perennial bunch grasses, are used in many styles of garden design for their foliage, inflorescences, seed heads. They are often used in natural landscaping, xeriscaping and slope and beach stabilization in contemporary landscaping, wildlife gardening, and native plant gardening. They are used as screens and hedges.


title: Poaceae

text: Grass playing fields, courses and pitches are the traditional playing surfaces for many sports, including American football, association football, baseball, cricket, golf, and rugby. Grass surfaces are also sometimes used for horse racing and tennis. Type of maintenance and species of grass used may be important factors for some sports, less critical for others. In some sports facilities, including indoor domes and other places where maintenance of a grass field would be difficult, grass may be replaced with artificial turf, a synthetic grass-like substitute.


title: Poaceae

text: In cricket, the pitch is the strip of carefully mowed and rolled grass where the bowler bowls. In the days leading up to the match it is repeatedly mowed and rolled to produce a very hard, flat surface for the ball to bounce off.


title: Poaceae

text: Grass on golf courses is kept in three distinct conditions: that of the "rough", the "fairway", and the "putting green". Grass on the fairway is mown short and even, allowing the player to strike the ball cleanly. Playing from the rough is a disadvantage because the long grass may affect the flight of the ball. Grass on the putting green is the shortest and most even, ideally allowing the ball to roll smoothly over the surface. An entire industry revolves around the development and marketing of turf grass varieties.


title: Poaceae

text: In tennis, grass is grown on very hard-packed soil, and the bounce of a tennis ball may vary depending on the grass's health, how recently it has been mowed, and the wear and tear of recent play. The surface is softer than hard courts and clay (other tennis surfaces), so the ball bounces lower, and players must reach the ball faster resulting in a different style of play which may suit some players more than others. Among the world's most prestigious court for grass tennis is Centre Court at Wimbledon, London which hosts the final of the annual Wimbledon Championships in England, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments.


title: Poaceae

text: A number of grasses are invasive species that damage natural ecosystems, including forms of "Phragmites australis" which are native to Eurasia but has spread around the world.


title: Poaceae

text: Grasses have long had significance in human society. They have been cultivated as feed for people and domesticated animals for thousands of years. The primary ingredient of beer is usually barley or wheat, both of which have been used for this purpose for over 4,000 years.


title: Poaceae

text: In some places, particularly in suburban areas, the maintenance of a grass lawn is a sign of a homeowner's responsibility to the overall appearance of their neighborhood. One work credits lawn maintenance to:


title: Poaceae

text: In communities with drought problems, watering of lawns may be restricted to certain times of day or days of the week. Many US municipalities and homeowners' associations have rules which require lawns to be maintained to certain specifications, sanctioning those who allow the grass to grow too long.


title: Vecna

text: Vecna ( ) is a fictional character appearing in the "Dungeons & Dragons" fantasy role-playing game. Vecna has been named one of the greatest villains in "Dungeons & Dragons".


title: Vecna

text: Originally appearing in the "Greyhawk" campaign setting, Vecna was described as a powerful wizard who became a lich. He was eventually destroyed, and his left hand and left eye were the only parts of his body to survive. Even after the character achieved godhood—being a member of the third edition's default pantheon of "D&D" gods (the pantheon of Oerth)—he is still described as missing both his left eye and left hand. Vecna's holy symbol is an eye in the palm of a left hand.


title: Vecna

text: Vecna's "right-hand man", who ultimately became his betrayer, is Kas the Bloody-Handed, a vampire whose sword, the Sword of Kas, is also an artifact.


title: Vecna

text: In "Eldritch Wizardry" (1976), the third supplement to the original "Dungeons & Dragons" rules, Brian Blume invented two artifacts he called the Hand and Eye of Vecna. These were supposedly the only remnants of an evil lich, Vecna, who had been destroyed long ago. "The book contains no more detail on Vecna other than the fact that Kas was his bodyguard". The name Vecna was an anagram of Vance, the surname of Jack Vance, the fantasy author whose works inspired the magic system used in "Dungeons & Dragons". The Hand and Eye of Vecna on the other hand were inspired by similar items that appear in the "Eternal Champion" series by Michael Moorcock (the Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn).


title: Vecna

text: On the artifacts, Gary Gygax later said, "nary a detail of those items did [Blume] ever reveal to me".


title: Vecna

text: The Hand and Eye of Vecna were then mentioned in the first edition "Dungeon Master's Guide" (1979) on page 124. During the "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" years, Vecna was regarded only as a legend or myth, a long-destroyed legendary lich of great power, only able to threaten player characters who dared to use his Hand and Eye.


title: Vecna

text: Ten years later, in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition's "Dungeon Master's Guide" (1989), Vecna's history was expanded under the description of his Hand. With the release of the adventure "Vecna Lives!" in 1990, written in support of "The City of Greyhawk" boxed set, Vecna finally appeared in person, reimagined as a demigod, and the chief antagonist of the adventure. At the end of the adventure—presuming the players defeat Vecna—he is transported to the "Ravenloft" campaign setting. Vecna's history, via his artifacts, was also further developed in the supplemental sourcebook "Book of Artifacts" (1993). After the publication of "Vecna Lives!" (1990), "Vecna disappeared throughout the rest of the '90s, until "Domains of Dread" (1997)" which confirmed his new location in the realm of Ravenloft. However, it wasn't until 1998 that there was a Ravenloft-centered follow-through, "Vecna Reborn".


title: Vecna

text: In 2000, Wizards of the Coast released the last adventure to be written for the 2nd edition ruleset, "Die Vecna Die!", a three-part adventure tying Greyhawk to the Ravenloft and Planescape campaign settings. In this adventure, Vecna was given the rank of a lesser god. "Die Vecna Die!" set up the transition between the second and third editions of D&D. According to Shannon Appelcline, the adventure "touched upon the oldest locales and the most ancient myths of the "D&D" game" by playing the Eye and Hand of Vecna against the cambion demigod Iuz.


title: Vecna

text: Wizards of the Coast continued the character's theme of ascending godhood in Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition (2000–2002) with the "Player's Handbook" (2000) listing him as a Lesser deity. Third Edition further raised Vecna's profile in the game, making him a member of the game's "core pantheon". Vecna's alignment was changed from Lawful Evil to Neutral Evil in Third Edition, and no in-game explanation has surfaced. Vecna's role in the 3rd edition Greyhawk setting was defined in the "Living Greyhawk Gazetteer" (2000). Vecna is detailed in "Deities and Demigods" (2002). On the deities of the Greyhawk setting, Matthew Attanasio, for "CBR", wrote, "Vecna, a lich who hordes [sic] dark secrets, covets incredible power and holds dominion over the undead, is perhaps the most infamous of these deities".


title: Vecna

text: Vecna appears in the revised "Player's Handbook" (2003) for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003–2007). His priesthood is detailed for this edition in "Complete Divine" (2004). Vecna was one of the deities featured in "Libris Mortis" (2004). Vecna and his priesthood were expanded upon in "Dragon" #348, in the "Core Beliefs" column.


title: Vecna

text: Vecna appears as one of the deities described in the 2008 "Dungeon Master's Guide" for Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition. He is primarily the god of secrets. The Hand of Vecna has also made its return for this edition of the game. Vecna was given a set of statistics in "" (2008). Vecna was the name of the Wizards of the Coast's server that hosted and handled the new online character builder tool.


title: Vecna

text: In the 5th Edition "Dungeon Master's Guide ("2014), Vecna appears as a member of the "Dawn War Pantheon" which is mostly derived from the 4th Edition pantheon. He is also included in the "Player's Handbook" (2014) as one of the deities of Greyhawk. In both, he is listed as the god of evil secrets. Additionally, both his hand and eye are listed as artifacts. In the "Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide" (2015), Vecna is mentioned as a possible God for the Arcana Cleric Domain, as well as a Warlock patron of the Undying.


title: Vecna

text: In the Exandria setting, Vecna is a Betrayer God also known as the Whispered One. He was introduced to this setting in the "Dungeons & Dragons" web series "Critical Role" as the main villain in the last arc of the first campaign. However, the events of "Critical Role" were not added to the official "Dungeons & Dragons" canon until Joe Manganiello's character Arkhan was added to the adventure module "" (2019). Further details on Vox Machina's fight with Vecna were then included in the official campaign sourcebook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount" (2020) along with details on Vecna's enemies and his commandments.


title: Vecna

text: In June 2022, Wizards of the Coast released the "Vecna Dossier" as a digital exclusive on D&D Beyond. This included background information and a 5th Edition statblock for Vecna in the updated style of the edition. This iteration is of Vecna as an archlich before his ascension to godhood.


title: Vecna

text: The left hand and eye of Vecna's original "mortal" lich form, which have never been replaced in his later more powerful incarnations, are now high-valued and very dangerous magical artifacts. To use the powers of the Hand of Vecna or the Eye of Vecna one is required to cut off one's own corresponding body part and affix Vecna's in its place. "The new bearer of the Eye or Hand (or both) will gain access to powerful spell-like abilities, but the items will slowly corrupt them, turning them evil over time". These artifacts were introduced in the third supplement to the original D&D rules, "Eldritch Wizardry". They went on to appear in all subsequent D&D editions. They are considered classic items in D&D, with Mordicai Knode of Tor.com commenting "We all agree that the "Hand and Eye of Vecna" are the best artifacts, right?" Scott Baird, for "Screen Rant", highlighted the risk of the items and stated that "a "D&D" party that finds one can find itself torn apart. The reputation of these items precedes them and many good adventurers would want to destroy the Eye or Hand of Vecna, but there is always the temptation of power. More importantly, the player will be tempted, simply so they can brag that they used these famous items in a campaign".


title: Vecna

text: Joe Manganiello's character Arkhan fought against Vecna with the adventuring party Vox Machina in the web series "Critical Role". He then stole the Hand of Vecna and replaced his own hand with the artifact. In "Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus" (2019), Arkhan is attempting to master the Hand of Vecna in hopes of freeing Tiamat, however, the artifact is slowly corrupting and decomposing his left side.


title: Vecna

text: Vecna created the "Sword of Kas" for his greatest servant, which contains a "portion of his consciousness."


title: Vecna

text: This interpretation is relatively recent. As per the 1st edition "Dungeon Master's Guide", Vecna only procured this most powerful sword for his chief lieutenant. Similarly, depending on edition and source, its appearance has varied, from a short sword to a wavy bladed two hander. However, it is consistently depicted that the "Sword" is inextricably tied to Vecna's relics. "The reason why Vecna only has a single eye and hand is due to a betrayal by Kas", who used the sword against his former master.


title: Vecna

text: "In the third edition of "Dungeons & Dragons," the Sword of Kas is a "+6 unholy keen vorpal longsword" that grants a +10 modifier to the Strength score of its wielder".


title: Vecna

text: A number of Vecna's other body parts are presented as minor artifacts in "Die Vecna Die!", including the "First Digit" (right thumb), "Second Digit" (right index finger), "Third Digit" (right middle finger), "Last Digit" (right pinky finger), "Incisors" (a pair of inappropriately named fang-like canines), "Molar", "Scalp", "Skin", "Heart", "Foot" (left), and "Right Eye". These artifacts are collectively known in D&D 3rd Edition as the "Fragments of Vecna". The "Compendium Maleficarum" is a book of spells, doctrines, and secrets crafted entirely from bone (even the pages) and penned in blood, that is on par with the "Fragments of Vecna". The "Tome of Shared Secrets" is an illustrated bestiary of relic status, with the ability to impart knowledge of dark and evil creatures at the cost of a portion the user's life force. Those two books were superseded in 5th edition by a combined "Book of Vile Darkness", a legacy of dark secrets started by Vecna. The "Rod of the Whispered One", while not nearly so powerful as the "Sword of Kas", is another item Vecna crafted to connect himself with his highest lieutenants. The final issue of Dragon Magazine, issue #359, featured rules for the "Left Ear of Vecna" as a minor artifact. It grants the owner magical bonuses to hearing and resisting sonic attacks, spell-like abilities to inflict deafness, grant clairaudience and create sonic blasts, and enables them to understand any spoken language. A lich known as Osterneth possesses the "Heart of Vecna" according to the "Open Grave" sourcebook.


title: Vecna

text: The "Head of Vecna" was a hoax that one adventuring party played on another in a campaign run by game master Mark Steuer. One of the groups tricked the other into going on a quest for the "Head of Vecna", a hoax artifact that was supposedly similar to his "Hand" and "Eye", but was simply an ordinary severed head. The hoax takes advantage of the fact that the "Eye" and "Hand" require a person to remove their own eye or hand and replace it with the artifact to function. The characters involved in the story reasoned that they needed to decapitate themselves to gain the powers of the Head of Vecna, and several members of the group actually fought over which character would get to have his head cut off and replaced. After the third character died, the joke was revealed.


title: Vecna

text: In the 1999 "Dungeons & Dragons" CRPG "", Fall-From-Grace (a celibate succubus) asks Morte (a disembodied floating skull) "What are you?", to which Morte replies "Me? I'm the head of Vecna." A similar conversation between the two involves Morte saying "It's a long story involving the head of Vecna. I don't want to talk about it." Grace responds with an amused "That was you?" Also in the same game, the "Eye of Vecna" is a rare item dropped by greater glabrezu.


title: Vecna

text: The "Head of Vecna" made a canonical appearance in the AD&D 2nd edition module "Die Vecna Die!" (2000), and was the subject of a short adventure on the Wizards of the Coast website in 2007.


title: Vecna

text: Familiarity with the "Head of Vecna" was cited as an example characteristic of an avid role-playing gamer by writer David M. Ewalt.


title: Vecna

text: Vecna is usually depicted as a powerful magician resembling a desiccated corpse missing his left hand and eye. A constant theme in the adventures in which the character appears is Vecna's never-ending quest for power, ending, should he succeed, with Vecna as the only deity in existence.


title: Vecna

text: Vecna was born as a human, centuries ago as a member of the untouchable caste in the Flan city of Fleeth on Oerth. He was initially trained by his mother, Mazzel, in the art of magic, before she was executed by the government of Fleeth for practicing witchcraft. Vowing revenge, Vecna eventually assumed a mastery of the dark arts achieved by no mortal before or since. Some say this achievement was due to direct tutelage by Mok'slyk the Serpent, believed to be the personification of arcane magic itself.


title: Vecna

text: Nearly one thousand years after his birth, Vecna, now a lich and ruler of a great and terrible empire (in the Sheldomar Valley, centered near the modern-day Rushmoors), laid siege to the city of Fleeth with an army of arcane spellcasters and undead. Legend has it that Vecna was nearly slain in this battle by clerics channeling the power of Pholtus, the god of light. The clerics unleashed a great burst of light, which hit Vecna primarily on his left side. Vecna was rescued and brought to safety by one of his wizard generals, a cambion named Acererak (who would one day himself become a mighty demilich).


title: Vecna

text: Vecna eventually recovered. On the verge of conquering Fleeth, the officials of the city came before him to beg for mercy. They offered up the entire city and her wealth if only Vecna would spare the lives of her citizens. When Vecna was not satisfied, the officials offered their own lives. Vecna gave one of their number, Artau, and his family, over to his lieutenant, Kas, who spent the entire day torturing and murdering them before the other officials. Still unsatisfied, Vecna slaughtered all within the city, and had their heads stacked before the officials, with those of their family members prominent. Vecna then granted his mercy, granting the officials leave to depart, and promising them his protection for the rest of their lives.


title: Vecna

text: At his empire's height, Vecna was betrayed and destroyed by his most trusted lieutenant, a vampire called Kas the Bloody-Handed, using a magical sword that Vecna himself had crafted for him, now known as the Sword of Kas. Only his left hand and his eye survived the battle, perhaps because of the previous events in Fleeth.


title: Vecna

text: Vecna did not stay gone forever, and rose as a demigod of magic and secrets in the world of Greyhawk. In 581 CY, his cult helped set events in motion that would have granted him the power of a greater god, but the plan was ultimately foiled. After these events, Vecna ended up imprisoned in the demiplane of Ravenloft, but broke free again later, emerging with the power of a greater god, after absorbing the power of Iuz. He then broke free into the city of Sigil, where he came perilously close to rearranging all existence to his whims. (Vecna's multiverse shattering campaign in Sigil is used as an in-universe way to explain the differences between the 2nd and 3rd editions of "Dungeons & Dragons.") When Vecna was ejected from Sigil by a party of adventurers, Iuz was freed and Vecna returned to Oerth greatly reduced in power, though still a lesser god.


title: Vecna

text: In the events of the Living Greyhawk campaign setting, Vecna's machinations allowed him to reappear on the prime material plane and retake his place in the Oerth pantheon.


title: Vecna

text: At some point in his history, Vecna penned a tome known as "Ordinary Necromancy". He is also rumored to have made significant additions to the "Book of Vile Darkness".


title: Vecna

text: Vecna has few allies, and countless enemies. In 2nd and 3rd Edition, his greatest, and perhaps only true ally is the mysterious entity known as the Serpent. In 4th edition, the Open Grave book introduces Osterneth, the Bronze Lich, as the mightiest servant of Vecna. The famed cambion lich, Acererak, once served Vecna, but the current status of their relationship is unknown. Among Vecna's staunchest foes are Kas, Iuz, Saint Cuthbert, the Lady of Pain, Pholtus, and the Circle of Eight. He is also opposed by the Old Faith and the Silent Ones.


title: Vecna

text: In 4th edition, Vecna's main foes in the realm of death and undeath are Kas, Orcus and the Raven Queen (though he would rather she rule the dead than Orcus). Among the gods, Ioun is something of Vecna's antithesis, for she would share with the world all the knowledge he would keep secret.


title: Vecna

text: Vecna's cult is very secretive, and cells have been uncovered, at various points in history, in Diamond Lake, Greyhawk, and Verbobonc. Temples to Vecna have also been reported in the Pomarj town of Highport and Erelhei-Cinlu, the debased city at the heart of the Vault of the Drow.


title: Vecna

text: Being a secretive cult, there are no real collections of Vecnan teachings. However, copies of the "Book of Vile Darkness" are highly prized by the cult for Vecna's role in that work's development. The "Open Grave" book offers the "Scroll of Mauthereign", which offers a twisted version of Vecna's history and tells his followers that committing evil acts is holy and righteous.


title: Vecna

text: Although not actually penned by Vecna, "the Book of Keeping" (a book of Yugoloth summoning) is heavily linked with the cult of Vecna, as the cultists have the only known copies that are free of the intentional errors introduced into the book by the fiends that wrote the volume as a trap for would-be summoners.


title: Vecna

text: Each position in Vecna's cult is named for a certain body part. At the top is Vecna himself, followed by the Voice of Vecna, which can only be filled by Vecna's manifestation.


title: Vecna

text: Next is the Heart of Vecna, the high priest of the cult. The last known Heart of Vecna was Diraq Malcinex of Ket, who was slain by adventurers in 581 CY.


title: Vecna

text: Immediately below the Heart of Vecna are two bizarre monsters known as the Hand and the Eye. The Eye of Vecna creature appears as a slender humanoid with an eyeball for a head, whereas the Hand of Vecna appears as a stocky humanoid with a huge left hand where its head should be.


title: Vecna

text: Individual congregations are known as organs. Each organ is led by a Thought of Vecna. Lesser priests are known as Memories of Vecna.


title: Vecna

text: Lay members of the cult consist of the Teeth, Fingers, Blood, and Spawn of Vecna. The Teeth of Vecna are made up of wizards, and specialize in arcane spellcasting and crafting magical items for the cult. The Fingers of Vecna consist mainly of thieves, who engage in various forms of subterfuge. The Blood of Vecna are mainly warriors charged with protection and enforcement of the cult and its goals. The Spawn of Vecna are the lowest in the cult hierarchy, and consist of the common people who honor the Lich Lord.


title: Vecna

text: In 4th edition, the "Open Grave" book shows the leader of the cult of Vecna is a lich named Mauthereign. Even when Osterneth, the Bronze Lich, is Vecna's mightiest servant, her position is not revealed among his files.


title: Vecna

text: Other Vecnan organizations are known to exist outside of the mainstream cult, and some may have similar or identical names. Relations between these groups and the mainstream cult may vary. Known examples are the Eyes of Vecna (a cult of undeath consisting mainly of rogues), the Fingers of Vecna (Vecna's personal guard), and the Ebon Triad (a heretical cult seeking to merge Vecna, Hextor, and Erythnul into a single entity).


title: Vecna

text: In 4th edition, a secret group known as the Keepers of the Forbidden Lore is devoted to Vecna. Unlike most Vecna worshippers, the Keepers reject most of the nasty and evil rituals and beliefs associated with the god; they worship him as the God of Secrets, and believe that there is some knowledge too evil for the world to know. They instead hunt down secrets and information they deem to be too dangerous for the world at large and keep it secret in the name of Vecna. This puts them in opposition to mainstream followers of Vecna who regard the Keepers as heretics, and makes them enemies of Ioun and her followers, who believe all knowledge should be available for everybody and the moral obligations on how to use it rest on the shoulders of the individuals involved.


title: Vecna

text: In 2013, Alex Lucard, for "Diehard GameFAN", highlighted the use of Vecna in two 2nd edition modules: "Vecna Lives" (1991) and "Die Vecna, Die" (2000). On the second module, Lucard wrote, "I love Vecna and I love Greyhawk. [...] Players will encounter some of the most iconic and evil characters in all of "Dungeons & Dragons", and have to witness firsthand the end of the Second Edition Universe, and the beginning of Third Edition".


title: Vecna

text: Vecna was #2 on "Screen Rant"'s 2018 "Dungeons & Dragons: The 15 Most Powerful Villains, Ranked" list — the article highlights the "Vecna Lives" (1991) module and states "the players are given the chance to control the members of the Circle of Eight as they investigate a strange burial mound in the Kron Hills. The players then have to watch in horror as the high-level wizards that they are controlling are brutally dealt with [...]. The players then wake up and realize that they have to succeed where some of the most powerful wizards in the world failed. "Vecna Lives" concludes with the players facing off against an avatar of Vecna".


title: Vecna

text: In 2019, Jeremy Thomas, for "411Mania", wrote "Vecna is one of D&D’s most well-known villainous characters. While his story has evolved slightly over the years, he has always been a powerful undead lich. The original appearance of the Eye and Hand of Vecna was in 1976’s "Eldritch Wizardry" and it was said that Vecna was long-since destroyed. He eventually became an antagonist in the world of Greyhawk, reimagined as a lich who attained demigod status. His hand and eye, which were separated from him, are able to be applied to characters to grant great powers at an equally great cost".


title: Vecna

text: Vecna was #4 on "CBR"'s 2020 "10 Unique (& Powerful) Villains To Spice Up A High Level Dungeons & Dragons Campaign" list — the article states that "Once a humble necromancer, he rose all the way to becoming a lich and finally a god through an act of ascension. Resplendent with evil this figure is a god whos domain encompasses the undead and secrets. This villain is the apex of the living dead. A campaign centered around fighting the undead in any established D&D setting could use him as the big bad at the end. He currently doesn't have a stat block in 5e but some homebrew stats exist for him".


title: Vecna

text: Vecna was #4 on "Game Rant"'s 2020 "10 Must-Have NPCs In Dungeons & Dragons Lore To Make Your Campaigns Awesome" list — the article states that "Aside from being a deity himself, Vecna can take on the role of an Undying Patron for Warlocks. Campaigns with a focus on gods, the divine, and the infernal may benefit from having Vecna. Vecna's cunning means he'll likely have a scheme to achieve domination over whatever pantheon he becomes a part of."


title: Steve Kazee

text: Steven Michael Kazee (born October 30, 1975) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for starring as Guy in the musical "Once" for which he was awarded the 2012 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. Kazee began his professional acting career in the mid 2000s, and from 2005 until 2013 acted in a series of Broadway productions including "Spamalot", "110 in the Shade", and "Once". Following the success of "Once", Kazee acted on multiple television series, most notably playing Gus Pfender in the fifth season of "Shameless". Kazee returned to theater in 2018, starring as Edward in the Chicago tryout of "".


title: Steve Kazee

text: Kazee was born and raised in Ashland, Kentucky. He is an alumnus of Fairview High School and Morehead State University. Kazee moved to New York City in 2002 and received his MFA from the Graduate Acting Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 2005.


title: Steve Kazee

text: He appeared in the New York Shakespeare Festival's "As You Like It" in June 2005. He appeared in "Seascape" on Broadway in November 2005 as the Leslie understudy. In January 2006, he appeared as Timmy Cleary in "The Subject Was Roses", which played at the Kennedy Center. He was later cast as a replacement for Sir Lancelot in "Spamalot" on Broadway in April 2006. In 2007, he starred as Bill Starbuck in the revival of "110 in the Shade" on Broadway, In 2008, he played Sobinsky in


title: Steve Kazee

text: "To Be Or Not To Be", which ran from September 16 through November 16 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.


title: Steve Kazee

text: Kazee starred as Guy in the stage adaptation of "Once", He originated the role off-Broadway when it opened at the New York Theatre Workshop on December 6, 2011. "Once" began previews on Broadway on February 28, 2012, and opened on March 18, 2012, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. Kazee made several TV appearances promoting "Once", including "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Today Show". Kazee won the 2012 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. Kazee and the cast of "Once" won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards.


title: Steve Kazee

text: In 2017 it was announced that Kazee would star in the stage adaptation of the 1990 film "Pretty Woman", opposite Samantha Barks in her Broadway debut. The musical, titled "", is directed by Jerry Mitchell and premiered in Chicago in March 2018 and later opened on Broadway in August 2018. After performing as Edward in the Chicago production, Kazee left "Pretty Woman: The Musical" due to "family reasons." He was replaced by Andy Karl when the production transferred to Broadway.


title: Steve Kazee

text: In 2006, Kazee played Dumas Shepherd in an episode of the television series "Conviction". In 2007, he appeared as Michael Barlow in "Medium" and Mark Green in "Numb3rs". In 2008, he appeared on "NCIS" as Michael Locke. In 2009, he played Dominic Humphreys on "". Kazee had a starring role on the CMT's "Working Class" (2011), in which he played Nick Garrett.


title: Steve Kazee

text: In 2013 he appeared on "Elementary" as Jeff Hines and on "Drop Dead Diva" as Dustin Wycott. In 2015, he played Gus Pfender in a recurring role in season 5 and 6 of Showtime's series "Shameless".


title: Steve Kazee

text: In October 2018, it was confirmed that Kazee is in a relationship with Jenna Dewan. In September 2019, it was announced that the couple were expecting their first child together. In February 2020, he and Dewan became engaged. He and Dewan welcomed their son on March 6, 2020.


title: Mung bean

text: The mung bean ("Vigna radiata"), alternatively known as the green gram, maash (٫ )٫ mūng (), monggo, or munggo (Philippines), is a plant species in the legume family. The mung bean is mainly cultivated in East, Southeast and South Asia. It is used as an ingredient in both savoury and sweet dishes.


title: Mung bean

text: The English word "mung" originated from the Hindi word (), which is derived from the Sanskrit word ().


title: Mung bean

text: Mung bean ("Vigna radiata") is a plant species of Fabaceae which is also known as green gram. It is sometimes confused with black gram ("Vigna mungo") for their similar morphology, though they are two different species. The green gram is an annual vine with yellow flowers and fuzzy brown pods. There are three subgroups of "Vigna radiata", including one cultivated ("Vigna radiata subsp. radiata") and two wild ones ("Vigna radiata subsp. Sublobata" and "Vigna radiata subsp. glabra"). It has a height of about 15–125 cm.


title: Mung bean

text: Mung bean has a well-developed root system. The lateral roots are many and slender, with root nodules grown. Stems are much branched, sometimes twining at the tips. Young stems are purple or green, and mature stems are grayish yellow or brown. They can be divided into erect cespitose, semi-trailing and trailing types. Wild types tend to be prostrate while cultivated types are more erect.


title: Mung bean

text: Leaves are ovoid or broad-ovoid, cotyledons die after emergence, and ternate leaves are produced on two single leaves. The leaves are 6–12 cm long and 5–10 cm wide. Racemes with yellow flowers are borne in the axils and tips of the leaves, with 10-25 flowers per pedicel, self-pollinated. The fruits are elongated cylindrical or flat cylindrical pods, usually 30-50 per plant. The pods are 5–10 cm long and 0.4-0.6 cm wide and contain 12-14 septum-separated seeds, which are either green, yellow, brown or blue and can be cylindrical or spherical in shape. Seed colors and presence or absence of a rough layer are used to distinguish different types of mung bean.


title: Mung bean

text: Germination is typically within 4–5 days, but the actual rate varies according to the amount of moisture introduced during the germination stage. It is epigeal, with the stem and cotyledons emerging from the seedbed.


title: Mung bean

text: After germination, the seed splits, and a soft, whitish root grows. Mung bean sprouts are harvested during this stage. If not harvested, it develops a root system, then a green stem which contains two leaves shoots up from the soil. After that, seed pods begin to form on its branches, with 10-15 seeds contained in each pod.


title: Mung bean

text: The maturation can take up to 60 days. Once matured, it can reach up to 30 inches (76 cm) tall, with multiple branches with seed pods. Most of the seed pods become darker, while some remain green.


title: Mung bean

text: As a legume plant, mung bean is in symbiotic association with Rhizobia which enables it to fix atmospheric nitrogen (58–109 kg per ha mung bean). It can provide large amounts of biomass (7.16 t biomass/ha) and nitrogen to the soil (ranging from 30 to 251 kg/ha). The nitrogen fixation ability not only enables it to meet its own nitrogen requirement, but also benefit the succeeding crops. It can be used as a cover crop before or after cereal crops in rotation, which makes a good green manure.


title: Mung bean

text: Mung beans are one of many species moved from the genus "Phaseolus" to "Vigna" in the 1970s. The previous names were "Phaseolus aureus" or "P. radiatus."


title: Mung bean

text: The mung bean varieties now are mainly targeted in resistance to pests and diseases, particularly the bean weevil and mung bean yellow mosaic virus (MYMV). For now, the main varieties include Samrat, IPM2-3, SML 668 and Meha in India; Crystal, Jade-AU, Celera-AU，Satin II，Regur in Australia; Zhonglv No.1, Zhonglv No.2, Jilv No.2, Jilv No.7, Weilv No.4, Jihong 9218, Jihong 8937, Bao 876-16, Bao 8824-17 in China. Also, with the help of the World Vegetable Center, the traits of mung bean have been improved a lot.


title: Mung bean

text: 'Summer Moong' is a short duration mung bean pulse crop grown in northern India. Due to its short duration, it can fit well inbetween of many cropping systems. It is mainly cultivated in East and Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It is considered to be the hardiest of all pulse crops and requires a hot climate for germination and growth.


title: Mung bean

text: Mung bean is a warm season and frost-intolerant plant. Mung bean is suitable for being planted in temperate, sub-tropical and tropical regions. The most suitable temperature for mung bean's germination and growth is 15-18 °C. Mung bean has high adaptability to various soil types, while the best pH of the soil is between 6.2 and 7.2. Mung bean is a short-day plant and long days will delay its flowering and podding.


title: Mung bean

text: The yield potential of mung bean is around 2.5 to 3.0 t/ha, however, usually due to the resistance to environmental stress and improper management, the average productivity for mung bean is only 0.5 t/ha. Since the indeterminate flowering habit of mung bean, when facing the proper environmental conditions, there can be both flowers and pods in one mung bean plant, which make it difficult for harvesting mung bean. The perfect harvesting stage is when 90% of pods' colour in one yield has been black. Mung bean can use a harverster for harvesting. It is important to set up the header in case of over-threshing.


title: Mung bean

text: The perfect moisture of grain for transportation is 13%. Before storage, the cleaning and grading process must be done. The ideal storage condition should keep the mung bean's moisture at exactly 12%.


title: Mung bean

text: Most of the mung bean cultivars have a yield potential of 1.8-2.5 tons/ha. However, the actual average productivity of mung bean hovers around 0.5-0.7 t/ha. Several factors constrain its yield, including biotic stresses (pests and diseases) and abiotic stresses. Stresses not only decrease productivity but also affect the physical quality of seeds, leading to be totally unusable or unfit for human consumption. All the stresses collectively can lead to significant yield losses of up to 10%-100%.


title: Mung bean

text: Insect pests attack mung bean at all crop stages from sowing to storage stage and take a heavy toll on crop yield. Some insect pests directly damage the crop, while others act as vectors of diseases to transmit the virus.


title: Mung bean

text: Stem fly (bean fly) is one of the major pests of mung bean. This pest infests the crop within a week after germination and under epidemic conditions, it can cause total crop loss.


title: Mung bean

text: Whitefly, "B. tabaci", is a serious pest in mung bean and damages the crop either directly by feeding on phloem sap and excreting honeydew on the plant that forms black sooty mould or indirectly by transmitting mung bean yellow mosaic disease (MYMD). Whitefly causes yield losses between 17% and 71% in mung bean.


title: Mung bean

text: Thrips infest mung bean both in the seedling and in flowering stages. During the seedling stage, thrips infest the seedling's growing point when it emerges from the ground, and under severe infestation, the seedlings fail to grow. Flowering thrips cause heavy damage and attack during flowering and pod formation, which feed on the pedicles and stigma of flowers. Under severe infestation, flowers drop and no pod formation takes place.


title: Mung bean

text: Spotted pod borer, "Maruca vitrata", is a major insect pest in mung bean in the tropics and subtropics. The pest causes a yield loss of 2–84% in mung bean amounting to US $30 million. The larvae damage all the stages of the crop including flowers, stems, peduncles, and pods; however, heavy damage occurs at the flowering stage where the larvae form webs combining flowers and leaves.


title: Mung bean

text: Cowpea aphid sucks plant sap that causes loss of plant vigor and may lead to yellowing, stunting or distortion of plant parts. Further, aphids secrete honeydew (unused sap) which leads to the development of sooty mould on plant parts. Cowpea aphid also can act as a vector of the mung bean common mosaic virus.


title: Mung bean

text: Bruchid is the most severe stored pests of legume seeds worldwide, damage up to 100% losses within 3–6 months, if not controlled. Bruchid infestation in mungbean results in weight loss, low germination, and nutritional changes in seeds, thereby reducing the nutritional and market value, rendering it unfit for human consumption, agricultural and commercial uses.


title: Mung bean

text: Mungbean yellow mosaic disease (MYMD) is a significant viral disease of mung bean, which causes severe yield losses annually. MYMD is caused by three distinct begomoviruses, transmitted by whitefly. The economic losses due to MYMD account for up to 85% yield reduction in India.


title: Mung bean

text: The major fungal diseases are Cercospora leaf spot (CLS), dry root rot, powdery mildew and anthracnose. Dry root rot ("Macrophomina phaseolina") is an emerging disease of mungbean, causing 10–44% yield losses in mung bean production in India and Pakistan. The pathogen affects the fibrovascular system of the roots and basal internodes of its host, impeding the transport of water and nutrients to the upper parts of the plant.


title: Mung bean

text: Abiotic stresses negatively influence plant growth and productivity and are the primary causes of extensive agricultural losses worldwide. Reduction in crop yield due to environmental variations has increased steadily over the decades.


title: Mung bean

text: Salinity affects crop growth and yield by the way of osmotic stress, ion toxicity, and reduced nodulation which ultimately lead to reduced nitrogen-fixing ability. Excessive salt leads to leaf injury and then reduced photosynthesis.


title: Mung bean

text: High-temperature stress negatively affects reproductive development in mung bean and affects all reproductive traits like flower initiation, pollen viability, fertilization, pod set, seed quality, etc. High Temperature over 42 °C during summer causes hardening of seeds due to incomplete sink development.


title: Mung bean

text: Mung bean requires a light moisture regime in the soil during its growing period, while at the time of harvest complete dry conditions are required. Since it is mostly grown under rainfed conditions, it is more susceptible to water deficiencies as compared to many other food legumes. Drought affects its growth and development by negatively affecting vegetative growth, flower initiation, abnormal pollen behavior and pod set. However, simultaneously, excess moisture or waterlogging, even for a short period of time, especially at the early vegetative stage may be detrimental to the crop.


title: Mung bean

text: Mung bean may also be affected by excess soil and atmospheric moisture during the rainy season which may lead to pre-harvest sprouting in mature pods. It deteriorates the quality of the seed/grain produced.


title: Mung bean

text: Using climate analysis tools delivered on the web can firstly help farmers to interrogate climate records to ask questions relating to rainfall, temperature, radiation, and derived variables to avoid some of the abiotic stresses. Deployment of varieties with genetic resistance is the most effective and durable method for integrated disease management, in the mean time focusing on yield, height, grain quality, market opportunities and seed availability. For pre-harvest sprouting (PHS), the development of mung bean cultivars with short (10–15 days) period of fresh seed dormancy (FSD) is important to curtail losses incurred by PHS.


title: Mung bean

text: Mung bean plants have a long history of being consumed by humans. The main consumed parts are the seeds and sprouts. The mature seeds provide an invaluable source of digestible protein for humans in places where meat is lacking or where people are mostly vegetarian. Mung bean has a large market in Asia (India, Southeast-Asia and East Asia) and is also consumed in Southern Europe and in the Southern USA. Mung bean protein is considered safe as a novel food (NF) pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283. The consumption of mung bean varies depending on the geographic region. For instance, in India, mung bean is used in sweets, snacks and savoury items. In other parts of Asia, it is used in cakes, sprouts, noodles and soups. In Europe and America, it is mainly used as fresh bean sprouts. The consumption of mung beans as such in the US is in the order of 22–29 g/capita per year, while the consumption in some areas of Asia can be as high as 2 kg/capita per year.


title: Mung bean

text: Mung bean is considered an alternative crop in many regions, which is generally preferable to sign a contract for the growing process before planting. In the US, the average price of mung bean is around $0.20 per pound. This is double the price of soybeans. The difference in production costs for mung bean and soybean is the post-harvest cleaning and/or transportation. Overall, mung bean is considered to have market potential for their drought tolerance, and they are a food crop and not a feed crop, which can help buffer the economic risk from variability in commodity crop prices for the farmers.


title: Mung bean

text: Mung beans are recognized for their high nutritive value. Mung beans contain about 55%-65% carbohydrate (equal to 630 g/kg dry weight) and are rich in protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. It is composed of about 20%-50% protein of total dry weight, among which globulin (60%) and albumin (25%) are the primary storage proteins (see table). Mung bean is considered to be a substantive source of dietary proteins. The proteolytic cleavage of these proteins are even higher during sprouting. Mung bean carbohydrates are easily digestible, which causes less flatulence in humans compared to other forms of legumes. Both seeds and sprouts of mung bean produce lower calories compared to other cereals, which makes it more attractive to obese and diabetic individuals.


title: Mung bean

text: Whole cooked mung beans are generally prepared from dried beans by boiling until they are soft. Mung beans are light yellow in colour when their skins are removed. Mung bean paste can be made by hulling, cooking, and pulverizing the beans to a dry paste.


title: Mung bean

text: Although whole mung beans are also occasionally used in Indian cuisine, beans without skins are more commonly used. In Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, whole mung beans are commonly boiled to make a dry preparation often served with congee. Hulled mung beans can also be used in a similar fashion as whole beans for the purpose of making sweet soups.


title: Mung bean

text: Mung beans in some regional cuisines of India are stripped of their outer coats to make mung "dal". In Bangladesh and West Bengal the stripped and split bean is used to make a soup-like dal known as ().


title: Mung bean

text: In the South Indian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and also in Maharashtra, steamed whole beans are seasoned with spices and fresh grated coconut. In South India, especially Andhra Pradesh, batter made from ground whole moong beans (including skin) is used to make a variety of dosa called pesarattu or pesara dosa.


title: Mung bean

text: In southern Chinese cuisine, whole mung beans are used to make a , or dessert, called , which is served either warm or chilled. They are also often cooked with rice to make congee. Unlike in South Asia, whole mung beans seldom appear in savory dishes.


title: Mung bean

text: In Hong Kong, hulled mung beans and mung bean paste are made into ice cream or frozen ice pops. Mung bean paste is used as a common filling for Chinese mooncakes in East China and Taiwan. During the Dragon Boat Festival, the boiled and shelled beans are used as filling in zongzi prepared for consumption. The beans may also be cooked until soft, blended into a liquid, sweetened, and served as a beverage, popular in many parts of China. In South China and Vietnam, mung bean paste may be mixed with sugar, fat, and fruits or spices to make pastries, such as bánh đậu xanh.


title: Mung bean

text: In Korea, skinned mung beans are soaked and ground with some water to make a thick batter. This is used as a basis for the Korean pancakes called bindae-tteok.


title: Mung bean

text: In the Philippines, "ginisáng monggó/mónggo" (sautéed mung bean stew), also known as "monggó/mónggo guisado" or "balatong", is a savoury stew of whole mung beans with prawns or fish. It is traditionally served on Fridays of Lent, when the majority of Catholic Filipinos traditionally abstain from meat. Variants of "ginisáng monggó/mónggo" may also be made with chicken or pork. Mung beans are also used in the Filipino dessert "ginataang munggo" (also known as "balatong"), a rice gruel with coconut milk and sugar flavored with pandan leaves or vanilla.


title: Mung bean

text: Mung bean paste is also a common filling of pastries known as "bakpia" in Indonesia and "hopia" the Philippines, and further afield in Guyana (where it is known as "black eye cake"). It is also used as a filling for "pan de monggo", a Filipino bread. In Indonesia, mung beans are also made into a popular dessert snack called "es kacang hijau", which has the consistency of a porridge. The beans are cooked with sugar, coconut milk, and a little ginger.


title: Mung bean

text: A staple diet in some parts of the Middle East is mung beans and rice. Both are cooked together in a pilaf-like rice dish called , which means mung beans and rice.


title: Mung bean

text: Mung beans are germinated by leaving them in water for four hours of daytime light and spending the rest of the day in the dark. Mung bean sprouts can be grown under artificial light for four hours over the period of a week. They are usually simply called "bean sprouts". However, when bean sprouts are called for in recipes, it generally refers to mung bean or soybean sprouts.


title: Mung bean

text: Mung bean sprouts are stir-fried as a Chinese vegetable accompaniment to a meal, usually with garlic, ginger, spring onions, or pieces of salted dried fish to add flavour. Uncooked bean sprouts are used in filling for Vietnamese spring rolls, as well as a garnish for "phở". They are a major ingredient in a variety of Malaysian and Peranakan cuisine, including "char kway teow", "hokkien mee", "mee rebus", and "pasembor".


title: Mung bean

text: In Korea, slightly cooked mung bean sprouts, called "sukjunamul" (), are often served as a side dish. They are blanched (placed into boiling water for less than a minute), immediately cooled in cold water, and mixed with sesame oil, garlic, salt, and often other ingredients.


title: Mung bean

text: In the Philippines, mung bean sprouts are called "togue" and are most commonly used in "lumpia" rolls called "lumpiang togue".


title: Mung bean

text: In Indonesia the food are often used as fillings like "tahu isi" (stuffed tofu) and complementary ingredient in many dishes such as "rawon" and "soto".


title: Mung bean

text: Mung bean starch, which is extracted from ground mung beans, is used to make transparent cellophane noodles (also known as bean thread noodles, bean threads, glass noodles, "fensi" (), "tung hoon" (), , , or ). Cellophane noodles become soft and slippery when they are soaked in hot water. A variation of cellophane noodles, called mung bean sheets or green bean sheets, are also available.


title: Mung bean

text: In Korea, a jelly called "nokdumuk" (; also called "cheongpomuk", ) is made from mung bean starch; a similar jelly, colored yellow with the addition of gardenia coloring, is called "hwangpomuk" ().


title: Mung bean

text: In northern China, mung bean jelly is called "liangfen" (), which is a very popular food during summer. The Hokkiens add sugar to mung bean jelly to make it a dessert called "Lio̍k-tāu hún-kóe" ().


title: Mung bean

text: Mung beans are increasingly used in plant-based meat and egg alternatives such as Beyond Meat and Eat Just's Just Egg.


title: Mung bean

text: The mung bean was domesticated in India, where its progenitor ("Vigna radiata" subspecies "sublobata") occurs wild.


title: Mung bean

text: Carbonized mung beans have been discovered in many archeological sites in India. Areas with early finds include the eastern zone of the Harappan civilisation in modern-day Pakistan and western- and northwestern India, where finds date back about 4,500 years, and South India in the modern state of Karnataka where finds date back more than 4,000 years. Some scholars, therefore, infer two separate domestications in the northwest and south of India. In South India, there is evidence for the evolution of larger-seeded mung beans 3,500 to 3,000 years ago. By about 3500 years ago mung beans were widely cultivated throughout India.


title: Mung bean

text: Cultivated mung beans later spread from India to China and Southeast Asia. Archaeobotanical research at the site of Khao Sam Kaeo in southern Thailand indicates that mung beans had arrived in Thailand by at least 2,200 years ago.


title: Mung bean

text: Creed Bratton on the US sitcom "The Office" sprouted mung beans in a drawer of his desk, noting how they are "very nutritious, but smell like death".


title: Liberal democracy

text: Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into different branches of government, the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society, a market economy with private property, and the equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and political freedoms for all people. To define the system in practice, liberal democracies often draw upon a constitution, either codified (such as in the United States) or uncodified (such as in the United Kingdom), to delineate the powers of government and enshrine the social contract. After a period of expansion in the second half of the 20th century, liberal democracy became a prevalent political system in the world.


title: Liberal democracy

text: A liberal democracy may take various constitutional forms as it may be a constitutional monarchy or a republic. It may have a parliamentary system, a presidential system or a semi-presidential system. Liberal democracies usually have universal suffrage, granting all adult citizens the right to vote regardless of ethnicity, sex, property ownership, race, age, sexuality, gender, income, social status, or religion. However, historically some countries regarded as liberal democracies have had a more limited franchise. Even today, some countries, considered to be liberal democracies, do not have truly universal suffrage. For instance, in the United Kingdom people serving long prison sentences are unable to vote, a policy which has been ruled a human rights violation by the European Court of Human Rights. A similar policy is also enacted in most of the United States. According to a study by Coppedge and Reinicke, at least 85% of democracies provided for universal suffrage. Many nations require positive identification before allowing people to vote. For example, in the United States 2/3 of states require their citizens to provide identification to vote, these states also provide state IDs for free. The decisions made through elections are made not by all of the citizens but rather by those who are members of the electorate and who choose to participate by voting.


title: Liberal democracy

text: The liberal democratic constitution defines the democratic character of the state. The purpose of a constitution is often seen as a limit on the authority of the government. Liberal democracy emphasizes the separation of powers, an independent judiciary and a system of checks and balances between branches of government. Multi-party systems with at least two persistent, viable political parties are characteristic of liberal democracies. In Europe, liberal democracies are likely to emphasize the importance of the state being a "Rechtsstaat", i.e. a state that follows the principle of rule of law. Governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedure. Many democracies use federalism, also known as vertical separation of powers, in order to prevent abuse and increase public input by dividing governing powers between municipal, provincial and national governments (e.g. Germany, where the federal government assumes the main legislative responsibilities and the federated "Länder" assume many executive tasks).


title: Liberal democracy

text: Liberal democracy traces its origins—and its name—to the European 18th-century, also known as the Age of Enlightenment. At the time, the vast majority of European states were monarchies, with political power held either by the monarch or the aristocracy. The possibility of democracy had not been a seriously considered political theory since classical antiquity and the widely held belief was that democracies would be inherently unstable and chaotic in their policies due to the changing whims of the people. It was further believed that democracy was contrary to human nature, as human beings were seen to be inherently evil, violent and in need of a strong leader to restrain their destructive impulses. Many European monarchs held that their power had been ordained by God and that questioning their right to rule was tantamount to blasphemy.


title: Liberal democracy

text: These conventional views were challenged at first by a relatively small group of Enlightenment intellectuals, who believed that human affairs should be guided by reason and principles of liberty and equality. They argued that all people are created equal and therefore political authority cannot be justified on the basis of "noble blood", a supposed privileged connection to God or any other characteristic that is alleged to make one person superior to others. They further argued that governments exist to serve the people—not vice versa—and that laws should apply to those who govern as well as to the governed (a concept known as rule of law).


title: Liberal democracy

text: Some of these ideas began to be expressed in England in the 17th century. There was renewed interest in Magna Carta, and passage of the Petition of Right in 1628 and Habeas Corpus Act in 1679 established certain liberties for subjects. The idea of a political party took form with groups debating rights to political representation during the Putney Debates of 1647. After the English Civil Wars (1642–1651) and the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Bill of Rights was enacted in 1689, which codified certain rights and liberties. The Bill set out the requirement for regular elections, rules for freedom of speech in Parliament and limited the power of the monarch, ensuring that, unlike almost all of Europe at the time, royal absolutism would not prevail. This led to significant social change in Britain in terms of the position of individuals in society and the growing power of Parliament in relation to the monarch.


title: Liberal democracy

text: By the late 18th century, leading philosophers of the day had published works that spread around the European continent and beyond. One of the most influential of these philosophers was English empiricist John Locke, who refuted monarchical absolutism in his "Two Treatises of Government". According to Locke, individuals entered into a social contract with a state, surrendering some of their liberties in exchange for the protection of their natural rights. Locke advanced that governments were only legitimate if they maintained the consent of the governed and that citizens had the right to instigate a rebellion against their government if that government acted against their interests. These ideas and beliefs influenced the American Revolution and the French Revolution, which gave birth to the ideology of liberalism and instituted forms of government that attempted to put the principles of the Enlightenment philosophers into practice. Neither of these forms of government was precisely what we would call a liberal democracy today (the most significant differences being that voting rights were still restricted to a minority of the population and slavery remained a legal institution) and the French attempt turned out to be short-lived, but they were the prototypes from which liberal democracy later grew. Since the supporters of these forms of government were known as liberals, the governments themselves came to be known as liberal democracies.


title: Liberal democracy

text: When the first prototypical liberal democracies were founded, the liberals themselves were viewed as an extreme and rather dangerous fringe group that threatened international peace and stability. The conservative monarchists who opposed liberalism and democracy saw themselves as defenders of traditional values and the natural order of things and their criticism of democracy seemed vindicated when Napoleon Bonaparte took control of the young French Republic, reorganized it into the first French Empire and proceeded to conquer most of Europe. Napoleon was eventually defeated and the Holy Alliance was formed in Europe to prevent any further spread of liberalism or democracy. However, liberal democratic ideals soon became widespread among the general population and over the 19th century traditional monarchy was forced on a continuous defensive and withdrawal. The dominions of the British Empire became laboratories for liberal democracy from the mid 19th century onward. In Canada, responsible government began in the 1840s and in Australia and New Zealand, parliamentary government elected by male suffrage and secret ballot was established from the 1850s and female suffrage achieved from the 1890s.


title: Liberal democracy

text: Reforms and revolutions helped move most European countries towards liberal democracy. Liberalism ceased being a fringe opinion and joined the political mainstream. At the same time, a number of non-liberal ideologies developed that took the concept of liberal democracy and made it their own. The political spectrum changed; traditional monarchy became more and more a fringe view and liberal democracy became more and more mainstream. By the end of the 19th century, liberal democracy was no longer only a "liberal" idea, but an idea supported by many different ideologies. After World War I and especially after World War II, liberal democracy achieved a dominant position among theories of government and is now endorsed by the vast majority of the political spectrum.


title: Liberal democracy

text: Although liberal democracy was originally put forward by Enlightenment liberals, the relationship between democracy and liberalism has been controversial since the beginning and was problematized in the 20th century. In his book "Freedom and Equality in a Liberal Democratic State", Jasper Doomen posited that freedom and equality are necessary for a liberal democracy. In his book "The End of History and the Last Man", Francis Fukuyama says that since the French Revolution, liberal democracy has repeatedly proven to be a fundamentally better system (ethically, politically, economically) than any of the alternatives, and that democracy will become more and more prevalent in the long term, although it may suffer "temporary" setbacks. The research institute Freedom House today simply defines liberal democracy as an electoral democracy also protecting civil liberties.


title: Liberal democracy

text: In practice, democracies do have limits on certain freedoms. There are various legal limitations such as copyright and laws against defamation. There may be limits on anti-democratic speech, on attempts to undermine human rights and on the promotion or justification of terrorism. In the United States more than in Europe, during the Cold War such restrictions applied to communists. Now they are more commonly applied to organizations perceived as promoting terrorism or the incitement of group hatred. Examples include anti-terrorism legislation, the shutting down of Hezbollah satellite broadcasts and some laws against hate speech. Critics claim that these limitations may go too far and that there may be no due and fair judicial process. The common justification for these limits is that they are necessary to guarantee the existence of democracy, or the existence of the freedoms themselves. For example, allowing free speech for those advocating mass murder undermines the right to life and security. Opinion is divided on how far democracy can extend to include the enemies of democracy in the democratic process. If relatively small numbers of people are excluded from such freedoms for these reasons, a country may still be seen as a liberal democracy. Some argue that this is only quantitatively (not qualitatively) different from autocracies that persecute opponents, since only a small number of people are affected and the restrictions are less severe, but others emphasize that democracies are different. At least in theory, opponents of democracy are also allowed due process under the rule of law.


title: Liberal democracy

text: Governments considered to be democratic may impose restrictions of free speech. Examples include restrictions related to Holocaust denial and hate speech.


title: Liberal democracy

text: In some countries, members of political organizations with connections to historical totalitarian governments (for example formerly predominant communist, fascist or Nazi governments in some European countries) may be deprived of the vote and the privilege of holding certain jobs.


title: Liberal democracy

text: In some cases, rights considered fundamental by some members of that country may be not be considered fundamental by other other members of that country.


title: Liberal democracy

text: In 1971, Robert Dahl summarized the fundamental rights and freedoms shared by all liberal democracies as eight rights:


title: Liberal democracy

text: For a political regime to be considered a liberal democracy it must contain in its governing over a nation-state the provision of civil rights- the non-discrimination in the provision of public goods such as justice, security, education and health- in addition to, political rights- the guarantee of free and fair electoral contests, which allow the winners of such contests to determine policy subject to the constraints established by other rights, when these are provided- and property rights- which protect asset holders and investors against expropriation by the state or other groups. In this way, liberal democracy is set apart from electoral democracy, as free and fair elections – the hallmark of electoral democracy – can be separated from equal treatment and non-discrimination – the hallmarks of liberal democracy. In liberal democracy, an elected government cannot discriminate against specific individuals or groups when it administers justice, protects basic rights such as freedom of assembly and free speech, provides for collective security, or distributes economic and social benefits.


title: Liberal democracy

text: According to Seymour Martin Lipset, although they are not part of the system of government as such, a modicum of individual and economic freedoms, which result in the formation of a significant middle class and a broad and flourishing civil society, are seen as pre-conditions for liberal democracy.


title: Liberal democracy

text: For countries without a strong tradition of democratic majority rule, the introduction of free elections alone has rarely been sufficient to achieve a transition from dictatorship to democracy; a wider shift in the political culture and gradual formation of the institutions of democratic government are needed. There are various examples—for instance, in Latin America—of countries that were able to sustain democracy only temporarily or in a limited fashion until wider cultural changes established the conditions under which democracy could flourish.


title: Liberal democracy

text: One of the key aspects of democratic culture is the concept of a "loyal opposition", where political competitors may disagree, but they must tolerate one another and acknowledge the legitimate and important roles that each play. This is an especially difficult cultural shift to achieve in nations where transitions of power have historically taken place through violence. The term means in essence that all sides in a democracy share a common commitment to its basic values. The ground rules of the society must encourage tolerance and civility in public debate. In such a society, the losers accept the judgement of the voters when the election is over and allow for the peaceful transfer of power. According to Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, this is tied to another key concept of democratic cultures, the protection of minorities, where the losers are safe in the knowledge that they will neither lose their lives nor their liberty and will continue to participate in public life. They are loyal not to the specific policies of the government, but to the fundamental legitimacy of the state and to the democratic process itself.


title: Liberal democracy

text: Several organizations and political scientists maintain lists of free and unfree states, both in the present and going back a couple centuries. Of these, the best known may be the Polity Data Set and that produced by Freedom House and Larry Diamond.


title: Liberal democracy

text: There is agreement amongst several intellectuals and organizations such as Freedom House that the states of the European Union (with the exception of Poland and Hungary), United Kingdom, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States, India, Canada, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Israel, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand are liberal democracies, with India currently having the largest population among the democracies in the world.


title: Liberal democracy

text: Liberal democracies are susceptible to democratic backsliding and this is taking place or has taken place in several countries, including, but not limited to, the United States, Poland and Hungary.


title: Liberal democracy

text: Freedom House considers many of the officially democratic governments in Africa and the former Soviet Union to be undemocratic in practice, usually because the sitting government has a strong influence over election outcomes. Many of these countries are in a state of considerable flux.


title: Liberal democracy

text: Officially non-democratic forms of government, such as single-party states and dictatorships, are more common in East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.


title: Liberal democracy

text: The 2019 Freedom in the World report noted a fall in the number of countries with liberal democracies over the 13 years from 2005 to 2018, citing declines in 'political rights and civil liberties'. The 2020 and 2021 reports document further reductions in the number of "free" countries in the world.


title: Liberal democracy

text: Plurality voting system award seats according to regional majorities. The political party or individual candidate who receives the most votes, wins the seat which represents that locality. There are other democratic electoral systems, such as the various forms of proportional representation, which award seats according to the proportion of individual votes that a party receives nationwide or in a particular region.


title: Liberal democracy

text: One of the main points of contention between these two systems is whether to have representatives who are able to effectively represent specific regions in a country, or to have all citizens' vote count the same, regardless of where in the country they happen to live.


title: Liberal democracy

text: Some countries, such as Germany and New Zealand, address the conflict between these two forms of representation by having two categories of seats in the lower house of their national legislative bodies. The first category of seats is appointed according to regional popularity and the remainder are awarded to give the parties a proportion of seats that is equal—or as equal as practicable—to their proportion of nationwide votes. This system is commonly called mixed member proportional representation.


title: Liberal democracy

text: The Australian Government incorporates both systems in having the preferential voting system applicable to the lower house and proportional representation by state in the upper house. This system is argued to result in a more stable government, while having a better diversity of parties to review its actions. The various state and territory governments in Australia employ a range of a different electoral systems.


title: Liberal democracy

text: A presidential system is a system of government of a republic in which the executive branch is elected separately from the legislative. A parliamentary system is distinguished by the executive branch of government being dependent on the direct or indirect support of the parliament, often expressed through a vote of confidence.


title: Liberal democracy

text: The presidential system of democratic government has been adopted in Latin America, Africa and parts of the former Soviet Union, largely by the example of the United States. Constitutional monarchies (dominated by elected parliaments) are present in Northern Europe and some former colonies which peacefully separated, such as Australia and Canada. Others have also arisen in Spain, East Asia and a variety of small nations around the world. Former British territories such as South Africa, India, Ireland and the United States opted for different forms at the time of independence. The parliamentary system is widely used in the European Union and neighbouring countries.


title: Liberal democracy

text: Recent academic studies have found that democratisation is beneficial for national growth. However, the effect of democratisation has not been studied as yet. The most common factors that determine whether a country’s economy grows or not are the country’s level of development and the educational level of its newly elected democratic leaders. As a result, there is no clear indication of how to determine which factors contribute to economic growth in a democratic country.