A congress is a gathering of people, especially a gathering for a political purpose.

Legislative assembly

Congress is the name of the main legislative body in a state that operates under a congressional system of government.

A congress is different from a parliament in that legislative initiative is vested into it. In a congressional system the executive and legislative branches of government are clearly differentiated. The office as Head of State (president) and Head of Government (prime minister) are typically merged, and the members of cabinet are only rarely taken from the congress.

Countries with Congresses:

• The U.S. Congress is the legislature of the United States federal government
• The National People's Congress is the highest legislative body in the People's Republic of China
• The National Congress of Brazil (Portuguese: Congresso Nacional) is Brazil's legislature.

In France, the congrès is a formal and exceptional joint meeting of both houses of Parliament in order to ratify an amendment to the Constitution.

Political party

Congress is included in the name of several political parties, especially those in former British colonies:

• The People's National Congress of Guyana
• The Indian National Congress of India
• The Nationalist Congress Party of India
• The Nationalist Trinamool Congress of India
• The Tamil Maanila Congress of India
• The Basotho Congress Party of Lesotho
• The Lesotho Congress for Democracy of Lesotho
• The Lesotho People's Congress of Lesotho
• The Malawi Congress Party of Malawi
• The Malaysian Indian Congress of Malaysia
• The Congress of Democrats of Namibia
• The Nepali Congress of Nepal
• The All People's Congress of Sierra Leone
• The African National Congress of South Africa
• The Pan-Africanist Congress of South Africa
• The All Ceylon Tamil Congress of Sri Lanka
• The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress of Sri Lanka
• The Ngwane National Liberatory Congress of Swaziland
• The United National Congress of Trinidad and Tobago
• The Ugandan People's Congress of Uganda

Political gatherings

Congress has also been used to describe certain historical gatherings of independence-minded nationalists or revolutionaries:

• The United States Continental Congress
• The Indian National Congress
• The Iraqi National Congress

(Note, the political parties mentioned above also began as groups of this type)

Other assemblies

Many parties also have a Party Congress which is held every few years to make decisions for the party and elected governing bodies. These are sometimes called political conventions.