A party platform, or platform sometimes also referred to as a manifesto, is a list of the actions which a political party, individual candidate, or other organization supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said peoples' candidates voted into political office or the professed opinion(s) proposed as part of law(s) or otherwise made into social policies. This often takes the form of a list of support for, or opposition to, socially relevant, urgent, controversial, or complicated topics or issues. Individual topics, and a party's, person's, or organization's opinion on them are often called the "planks" of their platform in reference to a basic stage made out of boards or planks of wood, similar to what can be assembled for public speaking or debates to be held on.