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| A | |
| AARCC | Alternative Agricultural Research and Commercialization Corporation |
| abdication | voluntary resignation from office by a queen or king. The most famous abdication in recent history came in 1936, when Britain's Edward VIII abdicated the throne because the British establishment would not permit him to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. |
| ABMC | American Battle Monuments Commission |
| abrogation | the repeal of a law, treaty, or contract, either by mutual agreement or unilaterally. |
| absolutism | theory of absolute government. Power can be vested in an individual (as a dictator), an office (as a monarchy), a party, or a government administration. The government is not restricted legally by any other government agency. Thus absolute government can lead to absolute power vested in one individual-e.g., a dictatorship. |
| academic freedom | the right of a professor at a university to pursue his research and publish his findings, whether popular or controversial, without political or any other kind of presure being put on him or her. |
| accord | a diplomatic agreement that does not have the same binding force as a treaty, but is often treated as such, e.g. the Camp David accord signed between Israel and Egypt at Camp David in 1978; the accord between Israel and Jordan in 1994. The term can also refer to any agreement reached by two conflicting parties. |
| accountability | the extent to which people are held responsible for their word and actions. For example, an employee is accountable to his boss; a congresspersons to his constituents, and a U.S. president to the people as a whole. |
| acculturation | the process by which people adapt to or adopt a culture that is not their own. |
| ACF | Administration for Children and Families |
| Achilles' heel | a defect, weakness, or point of vulnerability. Based on the Greek myth of Achilles, a warrior in ancient Greece. While being dipped in the waters of immortality, he was held by his heel thus making this the one part of his body that was mortal. He was eventually killed in the Trojan War by a wound in the heel. |
| acid test | a crucial test of the value of something or someone. A politician might face the acid test of his popularity in an election. The term is also used in accounting as a measure of a company's abilities to pay immediate liabilities. |
| Act | Legislation that has passed both Houses of Congress and has been either approved by the President, or passed over his veto, thus becoming a law. Also a term used to describe a bill that has passed by one House of Congress. |
| act of state | the actions of a government for which no individual can be held accountable. |
| activism | getting involved in political affairs, by such actions as running for political office, taking part in demonstrations, getting support for issues. Often used to refer to the activities of grass-roots protest movements, as in animal rights activists, etc. |
| ACYF | Administration on Children, Youth, and Families |
| ADA | Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 |
| ADB | Asian Development Bank |
| ADD | Administration on Developmental Disabilities |
| Adjourn | To postpone or suspend a meeting. |
| adjournment | the suspension of business for a specified time. |
| adjudication | the hearing and deciding of a legal case in a court of law. |
| administration | the management of institutional or governmental affairs; a term for the government itself and its policy-makers; as in the Clinton administration; the period in which a government holds office; as in the Persian Gulf war took place during President Bush's administration. |
| adversary system | the system of law in which a case is argued by two opposing sides: a prosecutor who tries to prove that the defendant is guilty and a defender, who argues for the defendant's innocence. The case is then decided by an impartial judge or a jury. The U.S. and Great Britain operate under the adversary system. |
| aegis | any power or influence that protects or shields, as when nations take part in peackeeping operations under the aegis of the United Nations, or humanitarian missions under the aegis of the Red Cross. |
| AFAA | Air Force Audit Agency |
| AFDB | African Development Bank |
| AFDC | Aid to Families with Dependent Children |
| AFDF | African Development Fund |
| affidavit | a declaration in writing signed and sworn to under oath. |
| affirmative action | the giving of preferential treatment to women and minorities in business and education to redress the effects of past discrimination. Affirmative action began in the 1960s; it has benefited hundreds of thousands of minorities and helped in the creation of an African-American middle-class. The number of women in professional and managerial jobs has also increased considerably as a result of affirmative action. However, during the 1990s affirmative action has become a contentious issue. While the bulk of minorities and civil rights leaders still support it, many conservatives claim that it amounts to "reverse discrimination." Supreme Court decisions in 1995 limited the scope of affirmative action programs in business and education. In 1997, California banned preferential treatment for minorities or women in state hiring practices. |
| affluence | wealth or riches. |
| affluent | wealthy; an affluent society is one in which there is an abundance of material or consumer goods. The term affluent society was popularized by economist John Kenneth Galbraith in 1964, and it is often used to describe the U.S. and other flourishing Western societies. |
| AFSC | Armed Forces Staff College |
| agenda | things to be done. Often used to describe political platforms, as in the Republican (or Democratic) agenda, meaning the policies each party hopes to pursue and enact. |
| aggregate demand | the total demand for goods and services in an economy, incuding demands for consumer goods and investment goods, the demands of local and central government, and of other countries for exports. |
| aggregate supply | the total supply of goods and services in an economy, including imports and exports, that is available to meet aggregate demand. |
| aggression | applied to belligerent actions by one state against another; as in Iraq committed an act of aggression when it invaded Kuwait in 1990. |
| agitation | in a political sense, refers to keeping an issue or a debate constantly before the public; as in there was considerable agitation for political reform in China in the late 1980s. Usually used to refer to opposition to the status quo (in communist countries, those who campaigned for human rights would often be referred to as agitators by the government.) |
| agitprop | originally set up as the Department of Agitation and Propaganda by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR. Later usage came to be more general, involving activities that encouraged acceptance of left-wing ideology. |
| agrarian | relating to land or agriculture. |
| AGRICOLA | Agricultural Online Access |
| AHCPR | Agency for Health Care Policy and Research |
| ahistorical | unrelated to history. |
| aide-de-camp | an officer who serves as confidential assistant and secretary to a higher ranking officer, such as a general. |
| alien | a visitor or resident in a nation of which he or she is not a citizen. |
| allegiance | loyalty to a principal, a leader, or a country, as in the Pledge of Allegiance. |
| alliance | joining together in pursuit of mutual interests; as, the alliance of the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union defeated the Nazis in World War II. The term can also refer to domestic politics, as an alliance of liberal interest groups is fighting to preserve afirmative action policies against conservative opposition. |
| altruism | unselfish concern for the welfare of others. |
| ambassador | the highest ranking diplomatic officer, who acts as personal representative of one state to another. |
| amendment | a change in a document made by adding, substituting or omitting a certain part. The U.S. constitution has 26 amendments, adopted after the original ratification of the constitution. Amendment can also refer to a change in a bill while it is being considered in a legislature. |
| Amendment | A proposal by a Member (in committee or floor session of the respective Chamber) to alter the language or provision of a bill or act. It is voted on in the same manner as a bill. The Constitution of the United States, as provided in Article 5, may be amended when two-thirds of the members each house of Congress approve a proposed amendment and three-fourths of the States thereafter ratify it. |
| amnesty | an act by which the state pardons political or other offenders, usually as a group. In 1977, for example, President Carter granted an amnesty to all Vietnam draft evaders. Amnesties are often used as a gesture of political reconciliation. In 1990, the ruling Sandinistas in Nicaragua declared an anmesty for over a thousand political prisoners as a prelude to a general election. Amnesties also sometimes occur after a change of government or regime. |
| AMS | Agricultural Marketing Service |
| Amtrak | National Railroad Passenger Corporation |
| ANA | Administration for Native Americans |
| anarchism | a doctrine that advocates the abolition of organized authority. Anarchists believe that all government is corrupt and evil. Anarchism was a force in nineteenth century Russia, associated with Prince Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) and Mikhail Baku |
| anarchy | the absence of government; disorder, chaos in a society. |
| annexation | the act by which one state takes possession of another state or territory, usually a smaller one, without the consent of the party being taken over. For example, in 1938 German troops invaded Austria and annexed it. The citizens of Austria thereby became subjects of Germany. |
| anthropology | the study of humankind; often used to refer only to the study of primitive peoples. |
| Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) | a landmark arms control agreement signed in 1972 by the Soviet Union and the U.S., this treaty limited antiballistic missiles to two sites of 100 antiballistic missile launchers in each country. In 1974 this was reduced to one site. |
| anti-clericalism | opposition to the influence of organized religion in state affairs. The term was applied particularly to the influence of the Catholic religion in political affairs. |
| anti-communism | opposition to communism. Anti-communism was the defining mark of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, which sought to check Soviet expansion around the globe. In domestic politics, being seen as "tough on communism" was often a litmus test for American politicians; anything less was to court electoral disaster. Anti-communism reached an extreme during the McCarthy era, in the early 1950s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy led an unscrupulous witchhunt to root out alleged communist sympathizers in U.S. government service. |
| anti-Semitism | hostility towards Jews. Anti-semitism is as old as Christian civilization. Jews were despised because, according to Christian belief, they had rejected Christ and continued to practice a religion that was not the true one. During the ninet |
| anti-trust laws | federal and state laws designed to restrict monopolistic business practices that interfere with free trade. These are thought necessary to protect the public interest (from price-fixing, for example.) |
| AOA | Administration on Aging |
| APHIS | Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service |
| apolitical | not concerned with politics. The term might be used to describe someone who does not care to vote, or to a nonpartisan organization. Fast Times is an apolitical newsmagaine, in that it is not affiliated with any political party. |
| apologetics | a branch of theology that deals with the reasoned defense of Christianity. |
| apologist | someone who writes or speaks in defence of a belief, faith, doctrine. If someone wrote in defense of the Vietnam War, for example, he would be an apologist for that war. |
| appeasement | giving in to unreasonable demands or threats out of weakness or stupidity. In political discourse appeasement has a very negative connontation. It harks back to the buildup to World War II, when Britain and France did nothing to check German rearmament and aggression, particularly the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia in 1938. Since World War II Western politicians of all stripes have done everything possible to avoid having the term applied to their actions or policies in the international arena. |
| Appropriation | A formal approval to draw funds from the Treasury for specific purposes. |
| appropriation | money used to pay for government-approved expenditures. |
| arbitrary | derived from opinion, random choice, or chance. When people speak of an artibrary decison they usually mean an unfair one, one that is not based on logic, standard rules, or accepted customs. |
| arbitration | settlement of labor disputes in which each side agrees to accept the decision of an arbitrator, who is a kind of judge appointed because of his acceptability to both sides. Sometimes the arbitrator may be a group, or a panel, rather than an individual. |
| ARC | Appalachian Regional Commission |
| archives | the place where public records and documents are kept, and also the documents themselves. |
| aristocracy | a government that is controlled by a small ruling class. Also refers to that class itself, sometimes called simply the upper class. The aristocracy may owe its position to wealth, social position, or military power, or another form of influence or training. These attributes are usually inherited. |
| armistice | ending of hostilities; as in the armistice of November, 1918, marked the end of World War I. |
| arms control | any international agreement that limits the type and number of weapons or armed forces. Arms control played a major role in superpower politics during the 1970s and 1980s, and a number of nuclear arms control agreements were signed by the United States and the Soviet Union. These were the Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty (1972) the First Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (1972), the Second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (1979), the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (1987), the First Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (1991) and the Second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (1993). In 1994, the U.S. had about 14,900 nuclear weapons, down from the record number of 30,000 in 1967, and the Russians had about 29,000. See also disarmament. |
| arraignment | a court hearing in a criminal case during which the defendant is informed of his or her rights and is required to plead guilty or not guilty. |
| ARS | Agricultural Research Service |
| Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) | promotes economic cooperation amongst member countries which include: Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. ASEAN also encourages cultural development, promotes peace and stability in southeast Asia, and cooperates with other international organizations. The headquarters is in Jakarta, Indonesia. |
| atavism | reversion to an earlier type; resemblance to remote ancestors. |
| ATF | Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms |
| ATSDR | Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry |
| Attorney General | the highest legal officer in the United States, who heads the Justice Department, and is chief legal advisor to the president. Each state also has an attorney general. |
| austerity | severity or harshness. Often used to describe economic conditions; as, the Polish people are undergoing a period of austerity as the economy makes a transition from communism to capitalism. |
| autarchy | political self-rule; complete independence, particularly economic self-sufficiency, in which through government controls a nation's economy (or a group of nations) is isolated from the rest of the world. During the Cold War the Soviet bloc practised economic autarchy, trading only within itself. |
| authoritarian | a form of government in which a large amount of authority is invested in the state, at the expense of individual rights. Often power in authoritarian systems is centered on a small group of autocratic leaders Usually used in a negative sense. |
| autocracy | a government in which almost all power rests with the ruler. The Soviet Union under Stalin, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, are examples of autocracies. |
| automation | in industry, the performing of routine tasks by machines that were formerly done by humans; any manufacturing system in which many of the processes are performed automatically or controlled by machinery. |
| autonomy | a limited form of self-government. In the U.S. states have a certain autonomy, which allows them to make their own laws regarding local matters. In international affairs, the Palestinians have been promised autonomy in Gaza, formerly occupied by Israel. Autonomy does not usually extend to control over foreign affairs. |
| B | |
| balance of payments | a statistical record of all the economic transactions between one country and all other countries over a given period. The transactions include goods, services (including investments) private and governmental capital, and gold movement. |
| balance of power | the concept that world peace is best served when no one power in any region gains sufficient military strength to dominate other states in that region. The term was first used to describe European statecraft in the nineteenth century. K |
| balance of terror | the phrase was coined by British prime minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965). It refers to the situation during the Cold War, when both the United States and the Soviet Union had the capacity to destroy each other with nuclear weapons. In the event of war, the destruction on both sides would have been so huge that neither side was prepared to risk starting such a conflict. A balance of terror existed. The doctrine of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) was a later variant of the idea of the balance of terror. |
| balance of trade | the balance between what a country spends on imports and what it earns by exports. A favorable balance of trade is when revenue from exports is greater than expenditure on imports. |
| balanced budget | a budget in which expenditure is equal to, or not greater than, income. In the 1990s, there has been growing concern about the federal budget deficit, and a proposal for a constitutional amendment that required the federal government to balance its budget annually passed the House of Representatives in 1995. It was, however, defeated in the Senate. Some economists argue that an unbalanced budget may not always be bad. Sometimes it is necessary to go into debt to ensure a stable future. For example, almost all states have laws that require them to balance their budgets each year, but they will issue bonds to finance large projects that are not within their annual budgets. |
| balkanization | to break up into small, hostile units, as happened to the Balkan states (Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Turkey and Romania) after World War I. A more recent example occurred in Lebanon during the 1980s, when the country split up into many warring factions with no central authority. The term "Lebanonization" was for a while used as the equivalent of balkanization. |
| ballistic missiles | long-range missiles that are mechanically guided only on the first part of their flights, after which they move under the force of gravity only, i.e. they become free-falling objects as they approach their target. Ballistic missiles are accurate and fast. They can cross an entire continent in thirty minutes and have great destructive power. |
| ballot | a printed piece of paper on which a voter indicates his or her preference from a list of individual candidates or parties; the act of voting or the entire number of votes cast at an election. |
| barter | to exchange goods or commodities without the use of money. |
| BEA | Bureau of Economic Analysis |
| belligerency | the term belligerent is used to refer to countries that are at war. International law grants to groups involved in an insurrection in their own country the status of belligerency, which means they are given the rights and obligations of a state to the extent that this is necessary for the prosecution of the civil war. |
| BIA | Bureau of Indian Affairs |
| bias | an inclination or prejudice that prevents objective judgment of something, as in hiring practices showed a bias against minorities. |
| BIC | Business Information Center (SBA) |
| Bicameral | The characteristic of having two branches, chambers, or houses, such as the United States Congress, which is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. |
| bicameral | two separate legislative chambers. |
| bicameral government | a government that consists of two legislative bodies rather than one. The U.S. has a bicameral system, since both the House of Representatives and the Senate have to approve a bill before it can become law. All U.S. states have bicameral legislatures, with the exception of Nebraska, which has a unicameral system. |
| big stick | to carry a big stick is when an individual, group, or nation backs up their demands with a credible threat of force or some other pressure that is sufficient to get the other party to accede to their wishes. The term was coined by President Theodore Roosevelt who said that a nation, like a man, should "tread softly but carry a big stick." |
| bilateral | involving two parties; as in a bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and Japan. |
| bilateralism | joint economic or security policies between two nations. Bilateralism may refer to trade agreements, or to military treaties and alliances. It also refers to cooperation betwen allies. |
| Bill | Formally introduced legislation. A proposed law requiring the approval of both Houses and the signature of the President to enact. (see also "engrossed bill," "enrolled bill," "clean bill," and "private bill.") |
| bill of rights | any bill that lays out the rights of individuals vis a vis the state. The Bill of Rights refers to the first 10 amendments to the U.S. constitution, which lay out individual liberties. Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison in 1787 that "A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular; and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference." |
| Bill of Rights | The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. |
| bipartisan | in American political discourse, refers to policies that have the support of both Democrats and Republicans. Bipartisanship is often most apparent in foreign policy, in which it is considered advisable for the country to present a united front. |
| BJA | Bureau of Justice Assistance |
| BJS | Bureau of Justice Statistics |
| black consciousness | a movement that emerged in the U.S. in the 1960s, on the heels of the civil rights movement that began in the 1950s. It refers to the cultivation among blacks of their own distinct cultural identity, and the realization that being black was something they could be proud of. Black consciousness tended to reject white liberal thinking about racial issues and set out to chart an independent course for black social and political progress. Black consciousness was linked to the movement sometimes known as "black power" that also emerged in the mid-1960s. Black consciousness was also a strong force in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, as part of the growing opposition to the system of apartheid. |
| black market | illegal trading in goods, at prices that are higher than the legal or usual prices. In many countries in which consumer goods are scarce, a black market forms a kind of underground economy through which people get what they want if they are prepared to pay the price. |
| blacklist | in the early twentieth century, a list maintained by an employer of workers who had joined unions and thus should not be hired. Such blacklists were made illegal in 1935. Blacklist now refers to any list by any organization of individuals whom it disapproves of and whom it may take punitive measures against. In 1984, for example, it was disclosed that the United States Information Agency had maintained a blacklist since 1981 which contained the names of liberal Democrats and others deemed unsuitable by agency officials. The list was destroyed. |
| BLM | Bureau of Land Management |
| bloc | a grouping of individuals, groups, or nations who work together to achieve common objectives. A bloc can be economic, military, or political in nature. For example, the countries of Eastern Europe under communism were referred to as the Eastern bloc; the 12 countries that make up the European Community form a trading bloc; a group of legislators from different parties might come together on a certain issue and form a bloc to vote on that issue. |
| block voting | when multiple votes are cast by one group, on behalf of its members. |
| blockade | any military action by sea or air designed to isolate an enemy and cut off his supply and communication lines. In 1962 the U.S. instituted a naval blockade of Cuba (although it was called a "quarantine") in response to the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles in that country. |
| BLS | Bureau of Labor Statistics |
| Bolshevism | synonomous with communism. The term comes from the Russian word bolshinstvo, which means majority, and referred to the party lead by Lenin (leader of the communist revolution in 1917), after it won a majority of votes at the Russian Social-Democratic Party conference in 1903. Used in the West in a derogatory sense. |
| bourgeois | used by Marxist theorists to describe anything associated with capitalists, including manufacturers, merchants, and small business owners such as shopkeepers. These groups were the opposite of the proletariat, or working people. Bourgeois has come to refer simply to the middle classes, those between the upper classes and the working classes on the social scale. The term is often used in a derogatory sense to refer to anything conventional, respectable, etc., as in "bourgeois values." |
| boycott | to refuse to do business with an organization or nation, as when the Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Also refers to a refusal to buy or sell something, as when, say, consumers are urged by an interest group to boycott a particular manufacturer's goods. |
| breach of the peace | a violation of the public peace, as in a riot. Also refers to any disorderly conduct. See also secondary boycott. |
| brigandage | theft or robbery. |
| brinkmanship | in political diplomacy or negotiation, the art of taking big risks, even to the brink of war, in the hope that the adversary will back down. Brinkmanship can be a way of testing an adversary's resolve. In 1994 Iraq massed troops on the Kuwaiti border, testing U.S. response-this was an act of brinkmanship on the part of Iraq's Saddam Hussein. Hussein backed down, and withdrew the troops when it became clear that the U.S. would mobilize to repel a possible invasion of Kuwait. Much of brinkmanship consists of bluffing, but it can be a dangerous game to play if either side misinterprets the moves of the other. |
| BTS | Bureau of Transportation Statistics |
| budget | a statement of estimated income and expenditure over a given period for an individual, group, government or organization. If revenues exceed expenditures, there is a budget surplus; if expenditure is greater than revenue, there will be a budget deficit. |
| bureaucracy | the administration of a government; all government offices taken together; all the officials of a government. The term is often used in a negative sense, when someone wants to point the finger at perceived inefficiencies or incompetence. Large bureaucracies are often seen as inflexible, with too many rules and red tape, making them unresponsive to the real needs of people. |
| business cycle | the general pattern of expansion and contraction that businesses go through. In terms of the national economy, the existence of business cycles means that a period of growth is usually followed by a recession, which is followed by a recovery. |
| BVA | Board of Veterans' Appeals |
| by-election | an election to fill an office that has become vacant before its scheduled expiration date. If a Congressman dies in office, for example, a by-election would be held to fill the seat. |
| by-laws | laws made by local authorities; regulations made by social or professional associations. |
| C | |
| C\3\I | Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence |
| C\4\ | Command, Control, Communications, and Computers |
| C\4\I | Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence |
| cabinet | an advisory committee to a president or prime minister, formed by the heads of government departments. |
| cadre | the nucleus around which a permanent military unit can be built, such as a cadre of officers. Also refers to the most dedicated members of a political party. |
| Calendar | A list of bills, resolutions, or other matters to be considered before committees or on the floor of either house of Congress. |
| caliphate | the office or rank of caliph (meaning ruler), in a Moslem country. The term derives from the title taken by the successors of Mohammed, the founder of Islam. |
| canon law | the laws that govern a Christian church organization. |
| canvass | to solicit votes; to examine carefully, as in to canvass public opinion. |
| capital | a city that is the seat of government of a state of nation; money used in business, where it refers to the wealth or assets of a firm. Capital is one of the three main factors of production, the others being land and labor. |
| Capitalism | an economic system in which the means of production, such as land and factories, are privately owned and operated for profit. Usually ownership is concentrated in the hands of a small number of people. Capitalism, which developed during the Industrial Revolution, is associated with free enterprise, although in practice even capitalist societies have government regulations for business, to prevent monopolies and to cushion domestic industries from foreign competition. Opponents of capitalism say that the economy should be organized to serve the public good, not private profit. Supporters say capitalism creates wealth, which creates jobs, which create prosperity for everyone. |
| capitulation | the act of surrendering or submitting to an enemy; a document containing terms of surrender. The term can also be used in a non-militaristic sense, as in, say,"the liberal members of the party felt that the president's policy was acapitulation to pressure from the right." |
| carpetbagger | an outsider. The term was originally applied to politicians from the Northern United States who went to the South after the civil war to try to exploit the unstable situation there for their own profit. (They often carried all their belongings in a carpetbag.) Now used to refer to a politician who runs for office in a state or other district that is not his home. |
| carte blanche | a signed paper, intentionally left blank so that the bearer can fill in whatever he pleases. To give someone carte blanche is to give them complete power to decide something, or to name their own conditions or terms. |
| Carter Doctrine | the doctrine enunciated by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, stating that "An attempt by any outside forces to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force." The Carter Doctrine, although it was not formally invoked, was put to the test after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The resulting Persian Gulf war in 1991 showed that the U.S. did indeed regard the attempt by a belligerent country to gain control of more than its allocated share of the region to be an assault on the vital interests of the U.S. |
| caste | an exclusive, often hereditary, class or group. Hindus in India live in a caste system, with four distinct classes, or castes, who traditionally are not allowed to mix with each other. |
| casus belli | an act or a situation that that justifies a declaration of war. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 was the casus belli that brought the U.S. into World War 11. |
| Caucus | A meeting of Democratic Party members in the House, which elects party leaders and makes decisions on legislative business. |
| caucus | a private meeting of members of a political party to plan action or to select delegates for a nominating convention; also refers to distinct groups, either official or unofficial, in Congress, as in the Black Caucus in the House of Representatives. |
| CBO | Congressional Budget Office |
| CCC | Commodity Credit Corporation |
| CDBG | Community Development Block Grant |
| CDC | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
| CEA | Council of Economic Advisers |
| censorship | the prevention of publication, transmission, or exhibition of material considered undesirable for the general public to possess or be exposed to. This can include the censorship, in the national interest, of military secrets, or of obscene material. One of the important public debates of 1995 is whether there should be censorship of material published on the Internet, the global network of computers. |
| census | an offical count of the population of a district, state, or nation, including statistics such as age, sex, occupation, property owned, etc. In the U.S., a census is held at the end of every ten years. |
| centralization | the adminstration of a government by a central authority. Centralization, understood as the concentrating of power or authority in the hands of the state, is often associated with socialist or communist systems. [The following is a comment from one of our readers, Richard Pond: "Your statement that centralization is associated with socialist systems could be misleading. The Spanish socialists have been much more decentralist than the Spanish right. The French socialists decentralized during the 80s; the Gaullists in contrast had been very centralist. The British conservatives centralize more than the British left does. And most far-right, very conservative or fascist regimes have been very centralist."] |
| Centralized Government | A form of government in which the national government maintains the power. |
| centrism | a political position that is neither left nor right but which occupies the middle ground. President Clinton's reelection strategy may well be centrist in essence, since the Republican challenger, whoever he may be, is likely to espouse the cause of the right, leaving the middle ground open to be claimed by the incumbent. |
| CEOS | Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (Justice) |
| CEQ | Council on Environmental Quality |
| CFA | Commission of Fine Arts |
| CFR | Code of Federal Regulations |
| CFTC | Commodity Futures Trading Commission |
| chain of command | the order in which authority is wielded and passed down. A military chain of command would extend from the most senior officers in an unbroken link down to the ranks. |
| character assassination | an unrelenting series of attacks on a person's character, often employing exaggerated, distorted, or even false information. When used in political races, character assassination is a tactic designed to take attention away from issues and place it on the opposing candidate, who is portrayed as being unfit for office. |
| charisma | in political speech refers to a person's flair and personal magnetism, his or her ability to inspire voters. Charismatic candidates exude charm and power; they excite people and can persuade them to be devoted to their cause. To say a politician lacks charisma is virtually to say he is dull. Examples of charismatic leaders include President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. |
| charter | the laws, including the powers and organization, granted to a city by the state legislature; the constitution of an international body, such as the United Nations. |
| chauvinism | an unreasoning and aggressive kind of patriotism. Also refers to any contemptuous attitude to another race, nation, or sex, as in male chauvinism. |
| cheap money | also called easy money, the term refers to economic conditions in which there are low interest rates and high credit availablity. The opposite is tight money. |
| checks and balances | a mechanism that gurads against absolute power in any governing body by providing for separate governing bodies having equal power. Power is equitably distributed or balanced amongst the various branches of government (e.g., legislat |
| Checks and Balances | A system of limits imposed by the Constitution of the United States on all branches of a government by giving each branch the right to change or cancel the acts of another branch that fall within its jurisdiction. |
| Christian Democrats | political parties in several countries in Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Christian Democrats are usually Roman Catholics, and have had considerable influence on political policies in the above countries since the end of World War II, particularly in the area of social reform. |
| church and state | the U.S. constitution provides for the strict separation of church and state. The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." The issue is still a live one today: Opponents of the movement to introduce prayer into public schools argue that such a provision would violate the constitutional separation of church and state. |
| CIA | Central Intelligence Agency |
| CITES | Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora |
| Citizen | A native or naturalized member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to its government and is entitled to its protection. |
| citizen | a person who is a member of a state or nation, either by birth or naturalization. Anyone born in the U.S. is a U.S. citizen and is entitled to full civil rights. |
| civil disobedience | refusal to obey laws. This tactic is most effective when used by fairly large groups as a way of getting unjust laws changed. Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) and his followers in India mounted many campaigns of mass civil disobedience in their campaign for independence from Britain. The American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, led by Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68), used the same tactic. Civil disobedience is usually passive and nonviolent, aimed at bringing injustices to the attention of lawmakers and the public at large. See also nonviolence. |
| civil liberties | the freedoms people have a right to in a society. They consist mostly of freedom of movement and association; freedom of religion, and freedom of expression. The idea of civil liberties is deeply embedded in the United States; it is enshrined in the Bill of Rights. |
| civil rights | rights granted by a state to all its citizens. In the U.S. this refers to the rights enshrined in the constitution and Bill of Rights. Civil rights prevent the government from intruding on personal liberties. |
| civil service | all nonmilitary employees of the government. |
| civil war | a war between different factions, whether geographcal or political, within one state or nation. |
| civilian | anyone who is not in military service. |
| civitas | a Latin term meaning citizenship. |
| clan | a close-knit social group held together by ties of kinship (as in clans in the Scottish Highlands) or other common interests. Sometimes writers refer to large or well-known political families as clans-the Kennedy clan, etc. |
| class | a number of people or things grouped together; a group of people that are linked together because of certain things held in common, such as occupation, social status, economic background: ruling class, middle class, working class, etc. |
| class struggle | conflict between different classes in a society. The idea of class struggle held an important place in Marxism. Karl Marx divided society into two broad groups: the capitalists, or bourgeoisie, and the proletariat, or workers. Their interests were inevitably opposed, according to Marx, because one group (the proletariat) was always being exploited by the other (the bourgeoisie), so that capitalist society was a constant struggle between them. Marx believed that eventually the proletariat would triumph and a new classless society would emerge. The idea of class struggle, as with other main tenets of Marxism, holds much less appeal worldwide now than it has done for most of this century, because of the general failure and collapse of Marxist systems around the globe. |
| classical economics | the dominant theory of economics from the eighteenth century until superseded by neoclassical economics in the twentieth century. It is associated with Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776) John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy (1848), and the work of David Ricardo (1772-1823), who were the first to systematically establish a body of economic principles. The basic idea was that the economy functioned most efficiently if everyone was allowed to pursue their own self-interest. Classical economics therefore favored laissez faire; the primary economic law was that of competition. See also Keynesianism; neo-classical economics. |
| Clean Bill | After a House committee extensively amends a bill, it often assembles its amendments and what is left of the bill into a new measure that one or more of its members introduces as a "clean bill." The revised measure is assigned a new number. |
| clemency | leniency or mercy to an offender or enemy. |
| closed shop | a business in which all the employees must be members of a labor union. The closed shop is most common in the printing, transportation and construction industries. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 made the closed shop illegal for firms engaged in interstate commerce. |
| closure | also called cloture, the term refers to the process by which a filibuster can be ended in the Senate. A motion for closure requires the votes of three-fifths of the Senate, i.e. 60 votes. |
| Cloture | A Senate procedure that limits further consideration of a pending proposal to thirty hours in order to end a filibuster. |
| CNO | Chief of Naval Operations |
| coalition | a combination of parties or states. For example, in 1991 a U.S-led international coalition defeated Iraq in the Persian Gulf war. Domestically, coalitions can be made up of many organizations which band together to pursue a particular cause, as for example the Christian Coalition is a coalition made up of many different Christian organizations for the purpose of influencing public debate on moral affairs. There can also be legislative coalitions, in which legislators team up with others to advance a particular issue or piece of legislation, even though they may not be of the same party or agree on any other issues. |
| code | a systematically organized set of laws, such as the criminal code, the civil code. |
| codification | the act of arranging laws in a code. |
| coercion | the use of force or other powerful means of persuasion to get someone to do something. Often used to refer to government by force. |
| coexistence | a tacit agreement between two or more groups, parties, nations etc., that are in fundamental disagreement or conflict, that they will not go to war. Coexistence is not quite the same as peace, because the parties remain wary of each other and often hostile, but they accept that widely different ideologies and social systems can exist without those differences alone being a cause for war. Coexistence was a phrase often used during the Cold War, when it was a preferable alternative to the U.S. and the Soviet Union incinerating the entire world in a nuclear holocaust. |
| cohort | a group of soldiers. Also refers to an assistant or colleague. |
| Cold War | the struggle between the U.S. and Western Europe against the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies. It involved confrontation but no actual "hot" warfare. The Cold War began in the 1940s when the U.S. believed it was imperative to check |
| collaboration | working with onother person, or with many others, on a project, such as a literary or scientific endeavor. Collaboration also refers to cooperating with an enemy. |
| collective | any enterprise in which people work collectively, such as collective farms in Russia and China. |
| collective bargaining | negotiations about terms of employment (wages, hours, etc.) conducted between an employer and the representatives of a group of workers, usually a labor union. |
| collective responsibility | the responsibility born by everyone who participates in a decision to abide by that decision and be responsible for its consequences. Britain applies the doctrine to its cabinet, which is collectively responsible to parliament for its decisions. |
| collective security | an agreement by participating nations that they will take joint military action against any nation that attacks any one of them. NATO and the Warsaw Pact are examples of collective security agreements. |
| collectivism | refers to all economic and political systems that emphasize central planning and group, as opposed to individual, endeavor. Thus socialist and communist societies are collectivist. The theory of collectivism emphasizes the value of cooperation under, usually, authoritarian leadership. The efforts of the individual matter less than the goals of the group as a whole. |
| collectivization | the transfer of something from private to public ownership. For example, the establishment of communism involved the collectivization of land and private property. |
| collegialism | a theory that the church is an organization equal to and independent of the state, with authority resting in its members. |
| colonialism | the system whereby a state acquires and rules colonies. |
| colonization | the establishment of a colony. Sometimes this involves moving a group of people from the colonizing state into the area to be colonized, usually to solidify control and to facilitate adminsistration of the area. |
| colony | a territory that is ruled by another state. Hong Kong, for example, was a colony of Great Britain until 1997, when China took over responsibility for it. Many colonies have a limited amount of self-government. |
| Cominform | the Communist Information Bureau, set up in 1947 to coordinate the activities of communist parties in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, France, and Italy. It was dissolved in 1956, on the initiative of the Soviet Union, in an attempt to reassure the West about Soviet intentions. |
| Comintern | The Communist International, also known as the Third International. The Comintern was founded in Russia in 1919, with the purpose of promoting revolutionary Marxism. As such, it encouraged revolution in capitalist countries. It was dissolved in 1943, during World War II, to ease the fears of Russia's Western allies. |
| comity | rules of etiquette in international relations that do not have the force of law but make international relations smoother. |
| Commerce | The traffic in goods, usually thought of as trade between states or nations. |
| commercialism | the methods of commerce and business. Sometimes in social commentary the term is used in a negative sense, as when a writer bemoans the commercialism of our society, which is said to squeeze out moral or spiritual values, or the conducting of business (i.e. the making of money) where it is not appropriate-such as the commercialism involved in the O. J. Simpson trial, for example. |
| commissar | formerly the title of Soviet administrative officers, particularly the heads of government departments. The term was dropped in 1946 in favor of minister. |
| Committee | A group of Members established in both houses of Congress for the purpose of considering legislation, conducting investigations, and other duties as assigned. (see also "standing committee," "select committee," "joint committee," "conference committee," and "Committee of the Whole.") |
| Committee of the Whole | House meeting in the form of a committee. This speeds the consideration of Legislation by lowering the quorum, and streamlining procedures. All decisions taken require approval of the full House. |
| Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) | a UN committee; created by the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. CERD examines reports of racial discrimination; operates UN libraries in New York and Geneva; reports to the UN General Assembly. Headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland. |
| common good | the welfare of all. See also commonwealth; national interest; public interest; social welfare. |
| common law | the legal system of most English-speaking countries, including the U.S, based on custom, habit, and precedent. Common law is supplemented by statutory law, which is established by legislation. The distinction between common law and statutory law has become blurred in modern times, because much of common law has been converted into statutes. |
| Common Market | see European Community. |
| commonwealth | similar in meaning to common good. The term originated in seventeenth century political thought. The idea was that all members of a society had certain common interests which contributed to the good of all (originally called the "common weal") and which they should therefore pursue and protect. |
| commune | the smallest territorial district in some European countries. More commonly used to denote a small group of people living communally, working together and sharing proceeds, etc. |
| Communism | the political system under which the economy, including capital, property, major industries, and public services, is controlled and directed by the state, and in that sense is "communal." Communism also involves a social structure that restricts individual freedom of expression. Modern communism is based on Marxism, as interpreted by the Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Ilyitch Lenin (1870-1924). See bolshevism; Communist manifesto; dialectical materialism; Leninism; Marxism; Marxist-Leninism. |
| Communist Manifesto | one of the most influential documents in modern history, the appearance of which marked the birth of modern socialist theory. Published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848, the manifesto began by declaring that the history of a |
| competition | rivalry. In economics, it refers to a situation in which two or more companies vie for business; if for example, there is competition between sellers for a limited number of buyers, this will tend to bring down the price of the commodity being sold. Buyers can also compete with each other; the result is usually that prices go up. Competition is a cornerstone of the free enterprise system, and extends itself into all areas of U.S. society: people vie for the best university places, the best jobs, etc. According to this idea, competition provide the spur for people to succeed and to excel. |
| competitiveness | in political speech, competitiveness often refers to the need to make sure that U.S. goods and services are on a par with or better than those of its foreign competitors. Commentators often point out in this respect that we live in an increasingly competitive world. |
| compromise | a settlement in which each party gives up something, or makes a concession, for the purpose of reaching an agreement. It also refers to something that is midway between two things. Someone once said that politics is the art of the possible; it might also be said that politics is the art of the compromise. Politicians constantly have to make compromises to keep the widely different groups that make up society, and who all have their own interests to defend, satisfied. Without compromise it is difficult to reach agreements and keep government running. |
| conciliation | the process of getting two sides in a dispute to agree to a compromise. The conciliator is a third party not involved in the dispute. The agreement has to be voluntary; the process of conciliation, unlike arbitration, does not compel the disputants to accept the proposed solution. |
| Concurrent Resolution | A proposal used to express opinions, or amend rules of both houses of Congress. Approval by both chambers is needed in order to adopt. |
| confederation | a group of states which join together to execute some government functions, such as the conduct of defense or foreign policy, but remain independent, sovereign states. The U.S. was a confederation from 1778 until 1787, after which it became a federation. |
| Conference | 1. Republican Members organization in the House and Senate, and Democratic Members organization in the Senate, which elects party leaders and makes decisions on legislative business. 2. A formal meeting, or series of meetings, between House and Senate Members held to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill. |
| Conference Committee | A temporary joint committee formed for the purpose of resolving differences between the houses on a measure or, occasionally, several measures. |
| Confirmation | The Senates constitutional duty to approve or reject presidential nominations. |
| conflict of interest | a situation in which a person's private interests are in conflict with the public interest that he is entrusted with representing. For example, if a legislator has investments in a certain business, and that business stands to benefit or lose by a particular piece of legislation, he is involved in a conflict of interest. He may choose to declare this conflict and abstain from voting. If he does not, he runs the risk of later being accused of unethical conduct. |
| congress | a representative assembly, such as the U.S. Congress. In the U.S., Congress consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Congress also refers to the two-year period which starts on January 3 each odd-numbered year, in which each particular Congress holds its meetings and debates. Thus one can speak of the achievements of, say, the 92nd Congress, or the 101st. |
| conscientious objector | someone who refuses to serve in the military for religious or moral reasons. They may believe, for example, that it is wrong to fight or kill, under any circumstances. |
| conscription | compulsory enrollment in the armed services. Also called the draft. The draft was ended in the U.S. in 1973, due to it sunpopulaity during the Vietnam war. |
| consensus | agreement. In politics, consensus refers to occasions when there is broad agreement on specific issues and / or the overall direction of policy, either between political parties or in public opinion, as, say, in 1993 there was a consensus among Democrats and Republicans about the need for health care reform. Consensus politics, the seeking for the middle ground on the assumption that society has shared values, is the opposite of politics driven by sharp ideological confrontation. |
| consent of the governed | the idea that a just government must be based on the consent of the people who live under its jurisdiction. Government must be an expression of the popular will. This concept is found in the writings of theorists from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, especially John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Stuart Mill. Locke's work influenced the Founding Fathers, and the Declaration of Independence states that "governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it." |
| conservatism | a political philosophy that tends to support the status quo and advocates change only in moderation. Conservatism upholds the value of tradition, and seeks to preserve all that is good about the past. The classic statement of conservatism was by the Irishman Edmund Burke, in his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), in which he attacked the French Revolution. He compared society to a living organism that has taken time to grow and mature, so it should not be violently uprooted. Innovation, when necessary, should be grafted onto the strong stem of traditional institutions and ways of doing things: "it is with infinite caution that any man ought to venture upon pulling down an edifice which has answered in any tolerable degree for ages the common purposes of society." |
| conservative | a person who supports conservatism. Naturally, those who are most conservative are usually those who have most to conserve, such as those who own wealth and property, or who are otherwise privileged, and thus have a stake in the disposition of things as they are. A conservative tends to be for the free market in economic affairs, and against what he calls "big government"-an excessive federal bureaucracy that intervenes in a wide range of social and economic areas. Conservatives prefer a kind of individualistic self-sufficiency. On social issues conservatives are pro-family, anti-abortion, and in general support traditional moral values and religion. Conservatives usually favor a strong military. |
| conservative parties | political parties that advocate conservatism. In the U.S., the Republican party is more conservative than the Democratic party, and although the Democrats have traditionally had a conservative wing (based in the South) in the last two decades much of it has joined the Republicans. The current trend in the Republican party is towards greater conservatism. |
| consortium | an association or partnership of states or companies. Often used of an association of bankers. |
| conspicuous consumption | refers to consumption of goods or services that is mainly designed to show off one's wealth. The term was coined by Thorstein Veblen in the 1890s, who said that all classes in society, indulged in conspicuous consumption, even the poor (who, like the wealthy, sometimes buy something that is not essential and which is beyond their means). According to Veblen, the way to decide whether a certain item belongs in the category of conspicuous consumption is to ask, "whether, aside from acquired tastes and from the canons of usage and conventional decency, its result is a net gain in comfort or in the fullness of life." |
| conspiracy | a planning and acting together in secret, especially for an unlawful purpose. |
| conspiracy theory | the idea that many important political events or economic and social trends are the products of conspiracies that are largely unknown by the public at large. Conspiracy theorists often assume that the political authorities are involved |
| Constituent | A citizen residing within the district of a legislator. |
| constitution | a document that describes the fundamental legal and political structures of a state. A constitution may be written or unwritten. |
| Constitution | The document that outlines the United States government and its functions. |
| constitutional government | a form of government in which a constitution details the powers available to each branch of government, and the rights of the individual in relation to the government. Any action by the government that it not in accord with the constitution is considered illegitimate. |
| constitutional law | the law that governs relations between the state and the citizens of a country. |
| constitutional monarchy | a system of government in which the head of state is a hereditary king or queen who rules through a constitution |
| constitutionalism | government according to a constitution. The term also refers to the branch of political science that deals with the theory of constitutional government. |
| consul | an official appointed by one country who lives in another country and assists his country's nationals with their business dealings. |
| consumer | in economic terms, someone who consumes goods and uses services. Consumer is distinguished from producer, since a consumer uses the goods or services to fulfill his or her needs, not to produce more goods. |
| consumer activists | people who are active in protecting the interests of consumers by pressing for higher standards of safety, healthfulness, truth in labeling, and customer service among producers of consumer goods. |
| consumption | in economics, the terms refers to the using up of goods or services, as opposed to production. It also refers to the amount used up. |
| containment | refers to the policy of the U.S. that began in 1947 and continued throughout the Cold War. It aimed to contain communism within its existing limits. This could either be through military means, as in Korea and Vietnam, or through technical and economic assistance to noncommunist countries. See also Cold War. |
| contempt of court | obstructing the business of a court; disobeying a court order; acting in such a way as to undermine the dignity or authority of a court. |
| Continuing Resolution | An appropriations measure that provides funding for agencies whose regular appropriations have not been passed. (see also "appropriations") |
| contract | a legally binding agreement between two or more people. Also refers to the document that describes the terms of the contract. There was much publicity in 1994 about the book contract signed by House Speaker Newt Gingrich with a prominent publisher: the contract would have spelled out what each side agreed to do: Gingrich to write the book by a certain date, the publisher to pay him a certain percentage of royalties from sale of the book. |
| COPS | Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (Justice) |
| corporation | an organization of people bound together to form a business enterprise or any other stated function. A quarter of U.S. business firms are corporations, but over three-quarters of all sales are through corporations. Ownership shares of a corporation are sold to buyers, but shareholders do not get much direct say in how the corporation is run. Another distinguishing characteristic of a corporation is the principle of limited liability, under which owners of corporations are not liable for debts of the firm. |
| cosmopolitan | belonging to the whole world, not just one locality or nation. A cosmopolitan person would be at home in many countries; a cosmpolitan city would be one in many different nationalities congregrated. |
| cost-benefit analysis | a comparison between the cost of a specific business activity and the value of it. A cost-benefit analysis is not limited to monetary calculations, but attempts to include intangible effects on the quality of life. For example, say there is a proposal to build a new factory in a town. The factory may bring economic benefits, but what if also gives off toxic emissions? In a cost-benefit analysis, the increase in jobs and other economic activity that the factory would bring has to measured against the possible damage on the health of the community. |
| Council for Mutual Economic Aid (Comecon) | was set up in 1949 by Eastern European countries, as a counterpart to Western Europe's Organization for European Economic Co-operation. Comecon exists to co-ordinate the various national economies-to provide, for example, adequate raw materials, and also to facilitate co-operation in science and technology. |
| counter-culture | the term given to the youth movement of the 1960s, which rejected many aspects of mainstream American culture. The counter-culture had both a political and a personal dimension. Politically, it was left-wing. Counter-culturalists loathed |
| counter-revolution | the overthrowing of a revolution and the return to the social order that preceded it. A famous series of counter-revolutions took place throughout Europe in 1848. After revolutions had overthrown monarchies and autocrats all over the continent, a conservative backlash restored the ousted monarchies and aristocrats to power. |
| coup d'etat | a sudden revolution in which control of a government is seized by force. Also means a sudden stroke of policy. |
| court martial | a military court convened for the trying of military personnel for military offenses. |
| covenant | a binding agreement. In law, a covenant is a writing, under seal, containing the terms of agreement between two parties. A covenant may also be a clause containing a subordinate agreement or stipulation in a deed. Another meaning of covenant, although not used often, is international treaty, such as the Covenant of the League of Nations in 1919. |
| CPSC | Consumer Product Safety Commission |
| credibility | believability. In political discourse it sometimes refers to a politician's standing with the electorate. If he is perceived to have broken many promises, for example, his credibility will be low. He will have what is sometime known as a "credibility gap". The same applies to international relations. If a country's policies are always changing, little credibility will be given to each new position adopted. (Many analysts would argue that the Clinton administation's credibility in foreign affairs is low for this reason.) |
| criminology | the study of crime and criminals. |
| criterion | a standard of judgment; any rule, principle, law, or fact by which a correct judgment may be formed. The plural is criteria. If someone wishes to apply for Medicaid, for example, they must meet certain criteria before they can be eligible. |
| CRS | Congressional Research Service |
| CSAP | Center for Substance Abuse Prevention |
| CSAT | Center for Substance Abuse Treatment |
| CSB | Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board |
| CSE | Office of Child Support Enforcement |
| CSREES | Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service |
| CSS | Central Security Service |
| cult of personality | the term refers to authoritarian regimes in which the enormous power of the leader is reinforced and enhanced by exaggerated propaganda centered on him personally. The leader's picture is everywhere, on billboards, in public squares and buildings; he is supposed to be the embodiment of wisdom and compassion and courage and leadership-a true father of the country, possessing almost superhuman powers. The term was first used in 1956 by the Russian Communist Party when it denounced Josef Stalin for indulging in a personality cult when he was in power, from 1924 to his death in 1953. |
| cultural revolution | refers to the period of social and political upheaval in China between 1965 and 1968. The cultural revolution was a massive attempt to reassert the principles of revolutionary Maoism (the doctrine associated with the Chinese leader, |
| curfew | a time, usually in the evening, after which it is forbidden to appear in the streets or in public places. Curfews are sometimes imposed by an occupying army in a city in order to maintain its control, but in unstable countries in times of great upheaval, the legitimate authorities may impose a curfew as a way of maintaining public order. |
| currency | refers to legal tender that is "current," that is, it is in circulation as a medium of trade and exchange. |
| currency convertibility | the right to exchange the currency of one country, at the going rate of exchange, for that of another. This enables a person to carry out a transaction in a foreign market whilst using the currency of his own country, which the seller can then convert to his own national currency. Currency convertibility is an essential element of world trade. |
| D | |
| DA | Department of the Army |
| dark horse | someone in a race (including a political race) who is not well known and whose chances of winning are considered slight, except by a few. |
| DARPA | Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency |
| DCAA | Defense Contract Audit Agency |
| DCMC | Defense Contract Management Command |
| de facto | Latin phrase meaning by the fact of; in fact, whether right or not. For example, if a revolution has just taken place in a country, the new government will be the de facto authority, i.e. the actual, existing authority, regardless of whether they have any legal claim to the position. De facto is the opposite of de jure. |
| de jure | Latin phrase meaning from the law; by right. The opposite of de facto. |
| DEA | Drug Enforcement Administration |
| dead heat | a tie. When contestants in a race finish in exactly the same time. A political dead heat would be when, say, two candidates or parties show exactly the same level of support in an opinion poll, or when two parties in an election win the same number of seats or poll the same percentage of votes. |
| deadlock | when something comes to a standstill because of pressure from two equal but opposing forces, as when a jury is unable to reach a verdict. |
| decentralization | the breaking up of central authority, and the distribution of it over a broader field, such as local authorities. Decentralization is an idea that is currently driving national politics: both parties are advocating a reduction in the powers of the central (i.e. federal) government, and the distribution of many of those powers to the states. |
| default | failure to do something, such as pay money due (a country might default on its loan payments, for example), or appear in court when required to. |
| deficit financing | the practice of deliberately operating with a budget deficit, financed by borrowing. The purpose of deficit financing is to stimulate the economy by increasing government spending, which will increase purchasing power and create more jobs. In the U.S., the era of deficit financing may be coming to an end, as both parties are committed to balancing the federal budget within the next decade. There has not been a federal budget surplus since 1969. |
| deflation | a reduction in economic activity in an economy, marked by falling prices and wages (or a slowing of the increase), less employment, and less imports. Deflation marks the downturn in a business cycle. It can be produced by raising taxes, increasing interest rates, or cutting government spending. Deflationary policies may be pursued to improve the balance of payments by reducing demand, and so reducing imports. |
| defunct | no longer existing. The Soviet Union, for example, is a defunct organization. |
| Delegate | 1. A person designated to act for or represent another or others; a deputy; representative, as in a political convention. 2. A member of the House from American Samoa, Guam, Virgin Islands, or Washington, D.C. The Constitution prohibits delegates from voting on the House floor, but permits them to vote in Committee. |
| delegate | a person authorized to act for others; a representative. To delegate means to give someone the authority to act as one's agent or representative. |
| delegation | a group of delegates, often representing a larger group. |
| demagogue | a person who tries to win political support by playing to people's fears and prejudices, trying to build up hatred for certain groups. Adolf Hitler, who stirred up the masses by telling them the Jews were responsible for German ills, was a demogogue. In the U.S., Senator Joseph McCarty (1908-1957) who led a witch hunt for communists in the U.S. during the 1950s, was also a demagogue. |
| democracy | government by the people; the rule of the majority. There is no precise definition of democracy on which all could agree. Even communist countries tend to call themselves democratic, and the mere fact that a government is elected by a majority of the popular vote does not of itself guarantee a democracy. A broad definition might include the following points (based on Thomas R. Dye and L. Harmon Ziegler's book The Irony of Democracy): Participation by the mass of people in the decisions that shape their lives; government by majority rule, with recognition of the rights of minorities; freedom of speech, press, and assembly; freedom to form opposition political parties and to run for office; commitment to individual dignity and to equal opportunities for people to develop their full potential. |
| Democratic | Characterized by the principle of political or social equality for all. |
| demographics | pertaining to demography, which is the science of statistics such as births, deaths, marriages, racial composition, etc. in a population. Political scientists study changing demographics in a community and analyse how that might affect voting behavior, etc. An example of such a change is the city of Los Angeles, which in the 1950s and early 1960s was almost exclusively white, but has now become one of the most multicultural cities in the country. Its demographics have changed dramatically. |
| deport | to send out of the country. An illegal immigrant, for example, may be deported if he cannot prove he has a right to stay in the country. |
| depression | in economics, the term refers to a prolonged slump in business activity, leading to low production, little capital investment, mass unemployment and falling wages. The worst depression in American history lasted from 1929 to 1933. |
| desegregation | the elimination of segregation by race in schools and public places. In the U.S. desegregation began in 1954, with the Supreme Court ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education case that "Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." Although it faced plenty of opposition in the South, desegregation gathered strength through the Civil Rights movement that began in 1955 and reached its peak in the mid-1960s. |
| despot | a tyrant; a ruler with absolute power. |
| despotism | rule by a despot; the methods of a despot. |
| destabilize | to make unstable, or insecure. Often used in a political sense about a government or a nation, especially when the destabilization is deliberately created by dissidents or rebels within a country, or by agents of a foreign power that want to disrupt or overthrow the government. The U.S, like many governments, has done its share of destabilizing, notably in Chile in the early 1970s, when it engineered the fall of the Marxist government there. |
| détente | the easing of strained relations between states. In recent history the term is applied to relations between the Soviet Union and the U.S. in the 1970s, that led to increased trade and arms control agreements. Détente ended with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. |
| deterrence | a defense policy in which a country ensures that it has sufficient military power to deter a potential enemy from making an attack. Deterrence is fundamental to U.S. policy, and underlies all the arguments about the need to keep the military |
| devaluation | reduction in the value of a nation's currency in relation to other currencies. Devaluation usually takes place because of an emergency, such as a balance of payments deficit in which the value of a country's imports is far greater than the value of its exports. Devaluation has the effect of boosting exports (because they are cheaper in terms of foreign currencies) and reducing imports (because they are more expensive in terms of foreign currencies). |
| devolution | the redistribution or delegation of political power away from a centralized body to a lower, often regional, authority. |
| DIA | Defense Intelligence Agency |
| dialectic | originally meant the art of argument, a method of logical inquiry that proceeded by question and answer. The idea of dialectic was developed by the nineteenth century German idealist philosopher Hegel into a way of understanding all natural and historical processes: everything conformed to a dialectical process of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. One thing produces from within itself its own opposite or negation, and from the conflict between the two emerges a synthesis. Hegel's idea of dialectic was adapted by Karl Marx to form dialectical materialism, the foundation of Marxist doctrine. |
| dialectical materialism | the central theory of Marxism, which Karl Marx adapted from the idealist philosophy of Hegel. Marx applied Hegel's theory of dialectic to political and economic history. Capitalism (thesis), produced its opposite socialism (antithesis) from within itself, by means of the proletariat, out of which eventually emerged a communist society (synthesis). Marx believed this to be an inexorable law of history. See also dialectic; Marxism. |
| dictatorship | a system of government in which power is concentrated in the hands of one person, the dictator. Dictatorships are rarely benevolent and often have scant regard for human rights. The classic dictatorships in the twentieth century were those of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) in Germany, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) in Italy, and Josef Stalin (1879-1953) in the Soviet Union. |
| dictatorship of the proletariat | a Marxist concept that was in fact first formulated before Karl Marx (1818-83), by a Frenchman, Auguste Blanqui (1805-81). It refers to an interim period immediately after the proletariat (the working class) has triumphed over the bourgoisie (capitalists). The rule of the proletariat then gives way to the classless, or communist society. |
| diehard | someone who is extremely reluctant to relinquish his opinions or beliefs, even when they are outmoded. Today there are probably many diehard communists in Russia, or in the U.S. there are diehards who still believe in racial segregation. |
| Dignitary | A person holding a high, dignified position or office. |
| diminishing returns | a principle of economics that states that if one factor of production is increased while others remain fixed, the resulting increase in output will level off after a time and then decrease. In other words, if a company decides to employ more workers but does not increase the amount of machinery it will eventually reach the point of diminishing returns, where the addition of each new worker will add progressively less to output than did the previous additions. To avoid diminishing returns the optimum relationship between all the factors of production at any given time must be evaluated. |
| diplomacy | the methods by which relations between nations are conducted. |
| diplomatic immunity | special rights given to diplomats, including immunity from the laws that operate in the country to which they are assigned. |
| direct action | when a group acts to achieve its goals without going through the accepted channels of communication or decision-making. If a group of workers, for example, goes on strike without the support of their union, or commits acts of sabotage, they are taking direct action. |
| direct democracy | democracy in which the people as a whole make direct decisions, rather than have those decisions made for them by elected representatives. A referendum is a form of direct democracy, as is the practice of recall, by which an elected offical may be voted out of office between elections if enough people sign a petition to remove him and then win the subsequent vote. A novel version of direct democracy was introduced into the American political scene by Ross Perot, when he ran as independent candidate for president in 1992. Perot proposed that some national decisons could be arrived at directly by the people through the use of electronic "town meetings." The idea arose because of widespread public dissatisfaction with the performance of Congress, which in the eyes of many was out of touch with the country as a whole. |
| directive | an executive order or general instuction. |
| dirty linen | in political speech the term refers to secrets such as sordid infighting, or outright scandal, that political parties would sooner keep secret. Displaying dirty linen in public is to have the less savoury aspects of one's life put on public view. The British Royal Family, for example, has not had much success over the last few years in keeping its dirty linen private. (The marital woes of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, for example.) |
| DISA | Defense Information Systems Agency |
| disarmament | reduction of armaments. Attempts have been made to reduce arms ever since the end of World War I. A disarmament conference was held in Geneva from 1932-34, but no agreement was reached. After World War II the United Nations established commi |
| discrimination | treating a person differently and unequally because of race, gender, country of origin, color, age, physical handicap, or other factors. The existence in the U.S. of equal opportunity laws aims to prevent or redress discrimination in the workplace. |
| displaced person | a person who has had to leave his own country as a result of war or persecution. |
| dissident | one who dissents, or disagrees. In political speech, the term refers to a person who protests injustices or abuses perpetrated by the government of his country. Dissidents are common in totalitarian or communist countries. Many Chinese dissidents are imprisoned or persecuted for advocating democracy, as were Russian dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union under communism. Some dissidents, such as Lech Walesa of Poland, and Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic eventually win their battles against the state and, in these two cases, become presidents of their countries. |
| divide and rule | the practice of keeping power by making sure that enemies are always kept divided and therefore too weak to mount an effective challenge. The Roman Empire perfected the strategy of divide and rule, and the British Empire employed the same tactic. |
| divine right | the terms usually refers to the divine right of kings, a medieval belief that the king was appointed by God to rule, and this divine right was passed on by hereditary alone. The belief had virtually died out by the end of the nineteenth century, except among a few diehard groups. |
| division of labor | a method of production on which modern industrial economies are based. It relies on specialization. Each worker performs only one, often very narrow task, in the production process. The division of labor is considered to be more efficient than other methods, in that workers do not waste time changing tasks, and can acquire more skill by specialization. The disadvantages of the division of labor is that work often becomes repetitive and boring, especially when the division of labor is carried to extremes, as in the modern auto plant, where tasks can be as narrow as the repeated tightening of nuts and bolts, all day, every day. |
| DLA | Defense Logistics Agency |
| DLSA | Defense Legal Services Agency |
| DOC | Department of Commerce |
| doctrinaire | theoretical and impractical. A doctrinaire person may have many theories for the regeneration of society, but will attempt to apply them rigidly, without allowing them to bend to fit particular circumstances. |
| doctrine | something taught as the principles or creed of a religion or political party. Similar in meaning to dogma. Doctrine also refers to certain foreign policies, such as the Monroe Doctrine or the Carter Doctrine. |
| DOD | Department of Defense |
| DOE | Department of Energy |
| dogma | a doctrine or belief, as laid down by an authority, such as a church. Also means an arrogant assertion of an opinion. When someone states his fixed beliefs and opinions and will not evaluate them objectively or listen to any counter-argument, he is speaking dogma. |
| dogmatism | rigid adherence to dogma; arrogant assertion of opinion, whether facts or evidence support it or not. |
| DOL | Department of Labor |
| domestic | pertaining to one's own country. Thus, a government will have a domestic policy dealing with policies within its own borders, and a foreign policy for everything outside those borders. |
| domino theory | an idea current during the Cold War that justified U.S. support of South Vietnam against invasion by communist North Vietnam. The theory was that if one southeast Asian state went communist, others, such as Laos and Cambodia, would follow, giving the communists much greater influence. Sometimes used today to describe the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. |
| DOT | Department of Transportation |
| double jeopardy | the law that says a person cannot be tried twice for the same offense. It is part of the Fifth Amendment, which states that "No person shall . . . be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." |
| draconian laws | severe or cruel laws. The phrase refers to Draco, a ruler of ancient Greece in the 7th century B.C., who imposed a severe code of laws on the city of Athens in 621. In political speech today, for example, a government that is facing social unrest or rebellion might take Draconian measures to restore order. |
| drawback | money collected as customs duty on imported goods and then refunded when the goods are sent out as exports. |
| DSCA | Defense Security Cooperation Agency |
| DSS | Defense Security Service |
| DTRA | Defense Threat Reduction Agency |
| due process | legal procedures designed to protect the rights and liberties of individuals. In the U.S., due process refers to the constitutional requirement that "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." In practice it means that someone accused of a crime must be given a fair chance to present his own case. |
| dumping | in economics, a term that means selling a product in large quantities abroad for a lower price than it fetches in the domestic market. Usually this is done to dispose of a surplus, and to gain a competitive advantage with foreign suppliers. |
| dyed-in-the-wool | unchangeable, from the process of having yarn dyed before being woven, which makes it retain its color better. One might refer to someone for example, as a dyed-in the-wool conservative, meaning that he is never likely to change his conservatism. |
| dynasty | a succession of political rulers who belong to the same family. Dynasties are less common now than they used to be in the days when hereditary monarchs held sway, but in some countries power is still passed on by a ruler to another member of his family. Sometimes even in a democracy powerful political families seem almost to attain the status of a dynasty. Examples include the Kennedys in America, the Bhuttos in Pakistan, and the relatives and descendants of Mahatma Gandhi in India. |
| E | |
| earmarked | to set aside for a special purpose, as when in a budget, funds are earmarked for certain projects. |
| ecclesiastical | pertaining to church matters, as in ecclesiastical courts, ecclesiastical history, etc. |
| ecology | the branch of biology that deals with the relation between living things and their environment. Ecology is an important political issue today, although it is usually comes under the umbrella of "environmental" issues. These include the human-made destruction of the environment (cutting down of rain forests, thinning of the ozone layer, for example) which in the opinion of environmentalists constitute a grave threat to life on earth. See environmental protection; greenhouse effect; ozone layer; toxic wastes. |
| economic growth | the increase in a nation's production of goods and services, often measured annually in the Gross National Product (GNP). In 1994, for example, the economic growth rate of the U.S., in terms of the GNP, was 4 percent, which is considered a fairly high rate of growth. |
| economic warfare | conflict between nations over economic issues, that results in each side taking action against the other, to raise tariffs, restrict imports, or boycott the others' goods. |
| economics | the science of the allocation of limited resources for the satisfaction of human wants. |
| economy | the entire system of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services in a country. |
| ecumenical | universal. Used in reference to cooperation, understanding and unity between different churches, as in the ecumenical movement. |
| ecumenism | the ecumenical movement within Christian churches, which has been a notable feature of Christianity over the last 30-40 years. Also refers to the cultivation of greater understanding and tolerance between different religions. |
| EDA | Economic Development Administration |
| EEOC | Equal Employment Opportunity Commission |
| egalitarianism | the doctrine that advocates equal political and social rights for all citizens. As such, egalitarianism is enshrined in the U.S. constitution. It does not mean that all people should be equal, but that they should all have equal opportunity. |
| election | the process by which public or private officials are selected from a field of candidates by the marking of ballots in a vote. |
| electorate | all the people in a district that are eligible to vote in elections. |
| Electronic Voting Machine | The device used to record roll call votes in the House of Representatives. (See also Electronic Voting Machine on the Clerk's main page.) |
| eleventh hour | the last moment; only moments before it would be too late, as in, "the arrival of the U.S. cavalry at the eleventh hour saved the settlers from an Indian attack." |
| elite | an exclusive, carefully selected group or class, usually small, which possesses certain advantages, either of wealth, privilege, education, training, status, political power, etc. One might refer, for example, to the governing elite of a country, or to the U.S. marines as an elite force. |
| elitism | the docrtine that advocates leadership by a select group or elite. Elitism is not something that any U.S. politician would openly advocate, since it runs counter to the democratic ideal. However, it often proves a useful term when one politician wants to snipe at another one. For example, If a politician appears to be advocating a policy that denies equal opportunity for all, he might be accused by his opponents of elitism. |
| emancipation | setting free from slavery or oppression, as in the Emancipation Proclamation, a declaration by President Abraham Lincoln that became effective in 1863, that all the slaves who were in the Confederate States, who were in rebellion against the United States, were free men. |
| embargo | a government-imposed ban on trade with a specific country. For example, the U.S. has a trade embargo on Cuba; a similar embargo imposed on trade with Vietnam was lifted in 1994. Sometimes an embargo can be imposed on a particular commodity only, as when the U.S. imposed a grain embargo on the Soviet Union as a protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. |
| embassy | the official residence and offices of an ambassador in a foreign country. |
| embezzlement | the act of fraudulently taking for oneself money or goods that have been entrusted to one's care. |
| emeritus | retired from service but retaining a rank or title, as in professor emeritus. |
| emigration | going to live permanently in a country other than one's own. |
| eminent domain | the right of a government to take private property for public use, even if the owner refuses consent, provided that adequate compensation is paid. The right is described in the Fifth Amendment of the constitution, which says, "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." |
| empire | a state that unites many different territories and peoples under one rule, as in the Roman Empire, the British Empire. Often the territories are spread widely apart across the globe, and do not possess the same constitutional status as the "mother" country. |
| enclave | an area that is surrounded or enclosed by territories that belong to another country. The area of Nagorno-Karabakh, for example, is an Armenian enclave within the state of Azerbaijan (and is the cause of a long-running war.) The term can also be used when a country or territory is divided along sectarian grounds. One might speak for example, of a Roman Catholic enclave within largely Protestant Northern Ireland. |
| Engrossed Bill | The final version of proposed legislation passed by one chamber. It includes any floor amendments. |
| Enrolled Bill | Legislation that has been passed by both houses of Congress, signed by their presiding officers, and sent to the President for signature. |
| entente | an international agreement or alliance. A famous entente was the Entente Cordiale, signed between Britain and France in 1904; another was the Triple Entente, an alliance between Britain, France, and Russia, which grew out of the Entente Cordiale and lasted until 1917. |
| entrepreneur | someone who sets up a new business undertaking, raises the money necessary, and organizes production and appoints the management. The entrepreneur bears the financial risk involved, in the hope that the business will succeed and make a profit. |
| environmental protection | the preservation of natural resources. In 1969 the National Environment Policy Act of 1969 stated that such protection is the responsibility of the federal government, and it was with this in mind that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was formed in 1970. Since then a network of environmental laws has been passed, covering such areas as the quality of air and water, toxic wastes, endangered species, and pesticides. See also greenhouse effect; ozone layer; toxic wastes. |
| envoy | a person sent by a government to a foreign country to conduct diplomatic business. An envoy ranks below an ambassador. |
| EO | Executive order |
| EOUSA | Executive Office for United States Attorneys |
| EPA | Environmental Protection Agency |
| equal opportunity | the idea, which enjoys a broad consensus in the U.S., that opportunities in education, employment or any other field, should be freely available to all citizens, regardless of race, gender, religion, or country of origin, or any other factor that could be used to discriminate against someone. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which was created in 1964, promotes equal opportunity in hiring, promotion, wages, and all other aspects of employment. |
| equal pay | the principle that pay should be according to the work done, not according to who the worker is. In other words, women who perform the same tasks, demanding the same skill and level of responsibility, as men should receive the same pay. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 prohibits discrimination in the workplace regarding pay, based on gender. |
| equilibrium | in economics, the term refers to a stable economic condition in which all significant variables remain constant over a period of time. For example, a market will be in equilibrium if the amount of goods that buyers wish to purchase at the prevailing price is exactly matched by the amount that the sellers wish to sell at that price. There is then no reason for the price to change, which it would do if either of the variables (supply or demand) were to alter. |
| equity | the capital, or assets, of a firm, after the deduction of liabilities. |
| ERS | Economic Research Service |
| establishment | the group that holds power in any section of society, political, military, academic, religious. The establishment is much broader than a political party or social class; it is usually conservative, upholding traditional ways of doing things; to outsiders, some establishments can seem like closed, secretive, elusive "clubs." |
| ethics | the study of standards of conduct and moral judgment. |
| ethnic | someone who is a member of an ethnic group (a group distinguished from others by race, customs, language, etc.), particularly a member of a minority group within a larger community. The U.S. is composed of a large number of ethnic groups. The ext |
| ethnocentrism | belief in the inherent superiority of one's own cultural, ethnic, or political group. |
| ethos | the characteristic attitudes, beliefs, and habits of a group, as in, say, the conservative ethos of hard work and self-reliance. |
| Eurocommunism | communism in Western Europe, particularly in France and Italy, and with the exception of Britain, has gained more of a foothold than it has in the U.S. Western European communist parties tend to be more democratic than their Eastern European or Russian counterparts, and have some measure of genuine public support. They have also tended to pursue policies that are independent of Moscow, particularly in the wake of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The term Eurocommunism became current in the 1970s. |
| European Community (EC) | The EC has 15 members, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. For over 40 years, member countries have been developing common policie |
| euthanasia | the act or method of causing death painlessly, as an act of mercy to someone suffering from an incurable disease. Euthanasia is illegal in the U.S., but it is a controversial issue in America today. More and more people are believing that they should have the right to decide, if they are suffering from an incurable and eventually fatal illness, when and how they should die. Publicity for euthanasia has been generated by Dr. Jack Kevorkian (christened "Dr Death" by the media) who has helped over a dozen terminally ill people end their lives. There has not yet been a definitive court ruling over whether such "assisted suicides," as performed by Kevorkian, are legal or not. |
| evangelical | strictly speaking, the term refers to anything that is contained in the four gospels in the New Testament, or to the Protestant churches that emphasize salvation by faith rather than good works. But nowadays the term is also used more loosely, often simply to describe a "born again," or fundamentalist, Christian. |
| evangelism | a zealous effort to spread the word of the gospel, i.e. the beliefs of Christianity. |
| ex officio | Latin term meaning because of one's office. It means that if, for example, someone is on a committee as an ex officio member, he is on the committee because of the office he holds, rather than because he was elected or otherwise appointed to the committee. |
| executive privilege | the privilege extended to the executive branch to withhold certain information from Congress or the courts. The need to withhold may be to preserve the confidentiality of communications within the executive, or to serve the national interest. Throughout U.S. history, presidents have invoked executive privilege, although the concept is not explicitly stated in the constitution. The privilege was restricted by the Supreme Court in 1974, after President Richard Nixon invoked it in the Watergate scandal. The Court ruled that executive privilege could not be applied to prevent evidence being supplied in a criminal case. In 1998, President Bill Clinton invoked executive privilege in an attempt to prevent his aides testifying before a grand jury in a criminal inquiry. As in 1974, the courts ruled that executive privilege must give way to the needs of a criminal case. |
| exile | the banishing of someone from his homeland for a specified period, or for life; the person who is so banished. Exile is not as common a punishment as it was before modern times. But exile is still the frequent fate of deposed dictators, who would otherwise have to face charges in their own land. Sometimes they choose voluntary exile rather than face the consequences of their rule. In 1994, the military rulers of Haiti chose to go into exile rather than resist a U.S. invasion. |
| Ex-Im Bank | Export-Import Bank of the United States |
| expansionism | the policy of expanding a nation's territory or sphere of influence. The term usually has a negative connotation, suggesting that a nation has its eyes on more than its fair share of things, as in Soviet expansionism. |
| expatriate | someone who has renounced his citizenship of the country in which he was born and has become a citizen of another country. |
| exploitation | taking advantage of something for one's own use or benefit, especially in an unethical manner. Thus an employer who pays unreasonably low wages or makes unreasonable demands on his employees is guilty of exploitation. In Marxist theory exploitation refers to the making of profit (by capitalists) from the labor of others (the proletariat). |
| export | the sending of goods or services to a foreign market for the purpose of selling. |
| expropriation | the confiscation of private property by the state, often without adequate compensation. This was often done by communist regimes. Another example: when whites in South Africa in the 1990s realized that there would soon be a black government in power committed to land redistribution, many feared that this might lead to the expropriation of their property (a fear that has not proved justified. |
| extradition | the giving up by one nation of a person accused or convicted of a crime to another nation where the offender is to be tried or, if already convicted, punished. |
| F | |
| FAA | Federal Aviation Administration |
| Fabianism | the socialist ideas outline by the Fabian society, a group founded in Britain in 1884. It rejected violent revolution, arguing that socialism would come about through the ballot box after a long period of political evolution. |
| faction | a group within an organization (often within a political party) that has different goals than those of the party as a whole, and seeks to promote those goals. James Madison warned against what he saw as the dangers of factions when he defined the term: "A number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse or passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interest of the community." In modern political speech, faction does not necessarily have a negative connotation, however. It can mean simply subgroup, as in the moderate (or liberal, or conservative), faction in a political party. |
| fait accompli | a French phrase that means literally an accomplished fact. A fait accompli refers to something that is already done, making any debate over it useless. In politics, an executive might simply go ahead and make a decision, perform an action, initiate a policy, as a way of bypassing potential opposition. He can then present his actions as a fait accompli, so wrong-footing his opponents. |
| Fannie Mae | Federal National Mortgage Association |
| Farmer Mac | Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation |
| FAS | Foreign Agricultural Service |
| Fasces | A bundle of rods bound around an ax with a projecting blade, representing strength in unity and legislative authority. |
| fascism | a nationalistic, authoritarian, anti-communist movement founded by Benito Mussolini in Italy in 1919. Fascism was a response to the economic hardship and social disorder that ensued after the end of World War I. The main elements of fascism were |
| FBI | Federal Bureau of Investigation |
| FCC | Federal Communications Commission |
| FDA | Food and Drug Administration |
| FDIC | Federal Deposit |