You might not think that the resignation of Malaysia’s prime minister would have much to do with Dewey. But the (ex-)prime minister is found in the schedules, at 959.5063 Second prime ministership of Mahathir bin Mohamad, 2018- (as the caption implies, he’s also at another number, 959.5054).
Malaysia is one of many countries whose history is subdivided by national leaders in the 900s. Table 1 provides standard subdivisions for time periods (e.g., T1—0905 21st century, 2000-2099), but decades and centuries aren’t necessarily meaningful subdivisions in the history of individual countries’ histories. Administrations provide natural time periods specific to their respective countries.
As in all areas, the editorial team aims to keep the schedules up to date in these areas. But you shouldn’t necessarily take them for an absolutely up-to-date almanac. There’s also something to be said for stability in the classification, and we don’t want to make a change one day just to have to change it again soon after. It’s likely that at 959.5063, we’ll end up closing the date range (2018-2020) and establishing a new number for Mahathir’s successor. But he could be reinstated, or this could mark the beginning of a shift in how Malaysia is governed; we’ll wait until there’s clarity in what comes next before we make changes.
Bolivia is a similar situation, with 984.0542 Administration of Evo Morales Ayma, 2006- still open despite Morales no longer being in office. Bolivia has an acting president, and it’s very unlikely that we would provide for an acting leader in the classification.
One important note about how the DDC makes these divisions: though the Dewey editors work out of the Library of Congress, the classification is an OCLC product, not a US government work. While we often follow LCSH practice, we don’t have to reflect US foreign policy like LCSH does. True neutrality may not be possible in classification, but we intend for these divisions to be as neutral and descriptive as possible.
There are 66 countries whose history is subdivided by their head of state or head of government. Why some but not others? Administrations work best when they are changed regularly and stably. This tends to exclude many parliamentary governments under the Westminster system, whose prime ministers may change frequently based on confidence votes. It works well for countries that elect presidents at regular intervals.
Most of the 66 countries are led by a president or chancellor. Only five are subdivided by prime ministerships, Malaysia among them. And only six countries have their current histories subdivided by monarchs. For you Dewey trivia enthusiasts, those are Belgium, Jordan, Morocco, the Netherlands, Spain, and Thailand. Surprised not to see the United Kingdom there? Elizabeth II’s reign is in a class-here note at 941.085 1945-1999. The last British monarch given in a caption is George V, who reigned 1910 to 1936.
Nothing is set in stone in the classification, including these developments. Just because a country isn’t subdivided by administrations now doesn’t mean it never will be. (It’s possible we could stop subdividing a country by administrations, but that’s less likely.) Think we should give another country this treatment? We’d love to work with you to explore the possibility!
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