A partnership is an arrangement where parties agree to cooperate to advance thei r mutual interests.

[1] Since humans are social beings, partnerships between individuals, businesses, in terest-based organizations, schools, governments, and varied combinations thereo f, have always been and remain commonplace. In the most frequently associated in stance of the term, a partnership is formed between one or more businesses in wh ich partners (owners) co-labor to achieve and share profits and losses (see busi ness partners). Partnerships exist within, and across, sectors. Non-profit, reli gious, and political organizations may partner together to increase the likeliho od of each achieving their mission and to amplify their reach. In what is usuall y called an alliance, governments may partner to achieve their national interest s, sometimes against allied governments who hold contrary interests, such as occ urred during World War II and the Cold War. In education, accrediting agencies i ncreasingly evaluate schools by the level and quality of their partnerships with other schools and a variety of other entities across societal sectors. Partners hips also occur at personal levels, such as when two or more individuals agree t o domicile together, while other partnerships are not only personal but private, known only to the involved parties. Partnerships present the involved parties with special challenges that must be n avigated unto agreement. Overarching goals, levels of give-and-take, areas of re sponsibility, lines of authority and succession, how success is evaluated and di stributed, and often a variety of other factors must all be negotiated. Once agr eement is reached, the partnership is typically enforceable by civil law, especi ally if well documented. Partners who wish to make their agreement affirmatively explicit and enforceable typically draw up Articles of Partnership. It is commo n for information about formally partnered entities to be made public, such as t hrough a press release, a newspaper ad, or public records laws. While partnerships stand to amplify mutual interests and success, some are consi dered ethically problematic. When a politician, for example, partners with a cor poration to advance the corporation's interest in exchange for some benefit, a c onflict of interest results. Outcomes for the public good may suffer. While tech nically legal in some jurisdictions, such practice is broadly viewed negatively or as corruption. Governmentally recognized partnerships may enjoy special benefits in tax policie s. Among developed countries, for example, business partnerships are often favor ed over corporations in taxation policy, since dividend taxes only occur on prof its before they are distributed to the partners. However, depending on the partn ership structure and the