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The third rail of a nation's politics is a metaphor for any issue so controversial that it is "charged" and "untouchable" to the extent that any politician or public official who dares to broach the subject will invariably suffer politically. The metaphor comes from the high-voltage third rail in some electric railway systems.
Touching a third rail can result in electrocution, so usage of the metaphor in political situations relates to the risk of "political suicide" that a person would face by raising certain taboo subjects or having points of view that are either censored, shunned or considered highly controversial or offensive to advocate or even mention.
It is most commonly used in North America. Though commonly attributed to Tip O'Neill,[1] Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987, it seems to have been coined by O'Neill aide Kirk O'Donnell in 1982 in reference to Social Security.[2][3]
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A wide range of issues might be claimed detrimental to politicians tackling them, but those below have all been explicitly described using the "third rail" metaphor:
- Withdrawal of Social Security and Medicare benefits[4][5][6][7]
- Debate of race issues[8][9][10][11]
- Antidumping and countervailing duty withdrawal[12]
- Opposition to abortion for rape victims[13]
- Resuming the draft[14]
- National content policy in export finance[15]
- The role that gifted education plays in modern public school segregation[16]
- Debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. support for Israel[17][18][19]
- Debate about mass immigration[20]
- Diverting water from the Great Lakes to the Southwest[21]
- Guns, including semi-automatic weapons and child safety locks.[22][23][24]
- California's Proposition 13 on property tax[25]
- The impact of meat consumption on climate change[26]
- The transfer of Federal lands over to states.[27]
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Argentina
Australia
- Policies to address climate change[29]
- Introducing Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, Makarrata Commission and Indigenous treaties[30][31][32]
- Removing or reforming Negative Gearing[33]
Canada
- Reforming or privatizing public health care[34]
- Reforming or privatizing the Canada Pension Plan[35]
- Amending the Constitution of Canada
- Re-Criminalization of Abortion
- Repeal of Same-Sex Marriage
Denmark
- Abolition of Store Bededag as a public holiday.[36]
Germany
- Introducing a speed limit on Autobahns[37][38]
India
- The introduction of income tax for agricultural income[39]
- Changes to the reservation system
Republic of Ireland
- Abortion was viewed as a third rail prior to the Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which legalised it in 2018[40][41][42]
- The provision of medical cards (which grant free or low-price healthcare to people on low incomes and the chronically ill)[43][44]
United Kingdom
- Drug policy[45]
- Reform of the National Health Service[46]
- Social care[47]
- West Lothian question[48]
- Rejoining the European Union[49][50]
China
- Advocating Hong Kong independence[51]
Singapore
The term OB marker ("out of bounds marker", a golf term)[citation needed] is widely used in Singapore for forbidden topics, such as:
- Corruption[citation needed]
- The Sedition Act makes it illegal to "promote feelings of ill-will or hostility between different races or classes of the population".[citation needed]
Serbia
- Recognition of Kosovo's independence
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- Asch conformity experiments – Study of if and how individuals yielded to or defied a majority group
- Communal reinforcement – Social phenomenon
- Foot-in-the-door technique – Compliance tactic
- Groupthink – Psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people
- Overton window – Range of ideas tolerated in public discourse
- Spiral of silence – Political science and mass communication theory
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