A politician is an individual involved in politics, sometimes this may include political scientists.
In Western democracies, the term is generally restricted to those either holding or seeking elected office for themselves, rather than specialists employed by such people. Such a distinction is less clear in non-democratic forms of government.
Some common offices for politicians can include:
- President
- Prime Minister
- Senator
- Member of Parliament
- Governor
- Minister
- Councillor
- Mayor
- School board member
- Kofi Annan - United Nations Secretary-General
- George W. Bush - President of the United States
- Al Gore - Vice President of the United States
- Vladimir Putin - President of Russia
- Romano Prodi - President of the European Commission
- Martin Luther King Jr - Civil Rights Leader
- Mohandas Gandhi - Nationalist leader of India
- Olof Palme - Prime Minister of Sweden
- Petra Kelly - Founder of the Green Party
- Robert F. Kennedy - US Attorney General, Senator
- Sun Yat-sen - Kuomintang Leader, Revolutionary leader of the Republic of China
- Thomas Jefferson - Founding Father of the United States
- Vladimir Lenin - Revolutionary founder of the Soviet Union
- Winston Churchill - British war-time Prime Minister