John Neil Diaz AB POLSCI 1A

1. Abdication: is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority.

Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of
monarchies.

2. Annexation is the administrative action and concept in international law relating

to the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state and is generally
held to be an illegal act.

3. Autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.

Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing.

4. Bankocracy (from the English word bank and Ancient Greek κράτος - kratos,
"power, rule") or trapezocracy[1] (from Greek τράπεζα - trapeza, "bank") is a
polemic term referring to the excessive power or influence of banks on public
policy-making.[2] It can also refer to a form of government where financial
institutions rule society.

5. Big Government: A negative term, used mainly by conservatives to describe

government programs in areas where they believe government shouldn't be
involved, especially those that spend money on social problems
6. Big tent or catch-all party is used in reference to a political party's policy of
permitting or encouraging a broad spectrum of views among its members.[1] This
is in contrast to other parties that defend a determined ideology and seek voters
who adhere to that ideology and convince people towards it.

7. Bipartisan: A cooperative effort by two political parties

8. Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority, compiling a blacklist (or black
list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being
deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, they
are seen by a government or other organization as being one of a number of
people who cannot be trusted or who have done something wrong. As a verb,
blacklist can mean to put an individual or entity on such a list.

9. Bleeding Heart: A term describing people whose hearts "bleed" with sympathy
for the downtrodden; used to criticize liberals who favor government spending for
social programs
10. Borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In
principle, the term borough designates a self-governing walled town, although in
practice, official use of the term varies widely. A district or section of a larger
town, or area that is self-governed
11. Camarilla is a group of courtiers or favorites who surround a king or ruler.
Usually, they do not hold any office or have any official authority at the royal court
but influence their ruler behind the scenes. Consequently, they also escape
having to bear responsibility for the effects of their advice.

12. Caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or

movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political
cultures.

13. Caucus: An informal meeting of local party members to discuss candidates and
choose delegates to the party's convention
14. CAVE people (an acronym for "citizens against virtually everything") is a
pejorative term for citizens who regularly oppose any changes in their
community, organization or workplace.
15. Checks and Balances: The system of dividing power among the three branches
of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) to prevent any one from
having too much power. Each branch has some authority to check the power of
the others, thereby maintaining a balance among the three.
16. Cleavage is a historically determined social or cultural line which divides citizens
within a society into groups with differing political interests, resulting in political
conflict among these groups.
17. Clientelism or client politics is the exchange of goods and services for political
support, often involving an implicit or explicit quid-pro-quo.

18. Cloture: A motion generally used in the Senate to end a filibuster. Invoking
cloture requires a vote by 3/5 of the full Senate. If cloture is invoked further
debate is limited to 30 hours, it is not a vote on the passage of the piece of
legislation.

19. Coalition: Alliance of two or more political parties, usually to form a government.

20. Coattails: The power of a popular candidate to gather support for other
candidates in his or her party. Winning candidates are said to have coattails
when they drag candidates for lower office along with them to victory.
21. Community wealth building is a term which covers a range of approaches
which "...aim at improving the ability of communities and individuals to increase
asset ownership, anchor jobs locally by broadening ownership over capital, help
achieve key environmental goals, expand the provision of public services and
ensure local economic stability”.

22. Coup d'etat: Sudden, often violent, change of government when a group, such
as the military, takes control.
23. Dark Horse: A long-shot candidate

24. Demagogue: A leader whose impassioned rhetoric appeals to greed, fear, and
hatred, and who often spreads lies. Former U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy (see
McCarthyism) is often cited as a classic demagogue.
25. Dummy candidate is a candidate who stands for election, usually with no
intention or realistic chance of winning.

26. Ecclesiastical polity is the operational and governance structure of a church or

of a Christian denomination. It also denotes the ministerial structure of a church
and the authority relationships between churches. Polity relates closely to
ecclesiology, the study of doctrine and theology relating to church organization.
27. Environmental security examines threats posed by environmental events and
trends to individuals, communities or nations. It may focus on the impact of
human conflict and international relations on the environment, or on how
environmental problems cross state borders.

28. Fat cat is a political term originally describing a rich political donor, also called an
angel or big-money man.

29. Fence Mending: What politicians do when they visit their electoral districts to
explain an unpopular action. The term originated in 1879, when Ohio Senator
John Sherman made a trip home that most people considered a political visit.
Sherman insisted, however, that he was home "only to repair my fences."
30. Filibuster: An attempt by a Senator or group of Senators to obstruct the passage
of a bill, favored by the majority, by talking continuously. Because there is no rule
in the Senate over how long a member can speak, a Senator can prevent a bill
from coming up for a vote by talking endlessly. Senator Strom Thurmond of
South Carolina set the record in 1957 by speaking for more than 24 hours
without stopping.
31. Fishing Expedition: An investigation with no defined purpose, often by one
party seeking damaging information about another. Such inquiries are likened to
fishing because they pull up whatever they happen to catch.
32. Flip-flop (used mostly in the United States), U-turn (used in the United Kingdom,
Ireland, Pakistan, Malaysia, etc.), or backflip (used in Australia and New
Zealand) is a derogatory term for a sudden real or apparent change of policy or
opinion by a public official, sometimes while trying to claim that both positions are
consistent with each other. It carries connotations of pandering and hypocrisy.
Often, flip-flops occur during the period prior to or following an election in order to
maximize the candidate's popularity.

33. Front Burner: Where an issue is placed when it must be dealt with immediately
34. Gerrymander: The reorganization of voting districts by the party in power to
insure more votes for their candidates. The term originated in 1811, when
Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts signed a bill that changed districts to
favor the Democrats. The shape of one new district supposedly resembled a
salamander, provoking a Boston newspaper editor to say, "Salamander? Call it a
Gerrymander!"
35. Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes that
shift as much decision-making authority as practical to the organization's lowest
geographic or social level of organization.
36. Gridlock or deadlock or political stalemate is a situation when there is difficulty
passing laws that satisfy the needs of the people. A government is gridlocked
when the ratio between bills passed and the agenda of the legislature decreases.
Laws may be considered as the supply and the legislative agenda as demand.
Gridlock can occur when two legislative houses, or the executive branch and the
legislature are controlled by different political parties, or otherwise cannot agree.
37. Hustings: The political activities, meetings and speeches that happen before an
election.

38. Incumbent: A current officeholder

39. Instrumentum regni (literally, "instrument of monarchy", therefore "of

government") is a Latin phrase perhaps inspired by Tacitus,[1] used to express
the exploitation of religion by State or ecclesiastical polity as a means of
controlling the masses, or in particular to achieve political and mundane ends.
40. Internal enemy refers to individuals or groups within one country who are
perceived as a threat to that country. The distinction between internal and
external enemies is discussed in Plato's Republic.[1] Groups considered internal
enemies by the countries in which they reside include Kurds in Turkey,[2]
Muslims in Western countries,[3] and political dissidents under Latin American
dictators.

41. Issue networks are an alliance of various interest groups and individuals who
unite in order to promote a common cause or agenda in a way that influences
government policy. Issue networks can be either domestic or international in
scope depending on their collective goal.

42. Landslide victory: Win an election with a large majority of votes.

43. Laocracy is a political term meaning "rule of the people". It has been used by the
Greek labor movement since its inception, instead of the term democracy.
44. Lapsed power is a term often used to describe a certain constitutionally-granted
power of government that is no longer used, according to constitutional
convention. This may be because the power's original conditions of use no longer
 exist, making it an anachronism, or simply because the nation's political culture
and attitudes have shifted, making the power appear too morally or ethically
objectionable to use. However, the power still exists.

45. Lobby: A group seeking to influence an elected official, or the act of doing so.
The term originated in the seventeenth century, when people waiting to speak
with legislators at the English House of Commons waited in a large atrium
outside the legislators' hall, called the lobby.
46. Logrolling is the trading of favors, or quid pro quo, such as vote trading by
legislative members to obtain passage of actions of interest to each legislative
member. In organizational analysis, it refers to a practice in which different
organizations promote each other's agendas, each in the expectation that the
other will reciprocate. In an academic context, the Nuttall Encyclopedia describes
logrolling as "mutual praise by authors of each other's work".

47. Machine Politics: Politics controlled by a tightly-run organization that stresses

discipline and rewards its supporters. Machines are usually found in large cities
and are frequently accused of corruption.

48. Mafia state is a state system where the government is tied with organized crime
to the degree when government officials, the police, and/or military became a
part of the criminal enterprise.

49. Majority government refers to one or multiple governing parties that hold an
absolute majority of seats in a legislature. This is as opposed to a minority
government, where the largest party in a legislature only has a plurality of seats.

50. Merit system is the process of promoting and hiring government employees
based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political
connections.[1] It is the opposite of the spoils system.

51. Message discipline is the concept that politicians and other public policy
advocates should talk about what is relevant to achieve their aims, and not allow
themselves to be sidetracked either by their own thoughts or the questions of
press or audience.

52. Middle power is a sovereign state that is not a great power nor a superpower,
but still has large or moderate influence and international recognition.

53. Minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority

parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when
a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in
 the legislature.

54. Officialese, bureaucratese, or governmentese is language that sounds official. It

is the "language of officialdom". Officialese is characterized by a preference for
wordy, long sentences; a preference for complex words, code words or
buzzwords over simple, traditional ones; a preference for vagueness over
directness and a preference for passive over active voice.

55. Opportunism is the practice of taking advantage of circumstances – with little

regard for principles or with what the consequences are for others. Opportunist
actions are expedient actions guided primarily by self-interested motives. The
term can be applied to individual humans and living organisms, groups,
organizations, styles, behaviors, and trends.

56. Oropolitics comes from the Greek oros meaning mountain and politikos
meaning citizen. In modern usage it denotes the use of mountaineering for
political purposes.
57. Pandering is the act of expressing one's views in accordance with the likes of a
group to which one is attempting to appeal. The term is most notably associated
with politics. In pandering, the views one is expressing are merely for the
purpose of drawing support up to and including votes and do not necessarily
reflect one's personal values

58. Perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected
office and rarely, if ever, wins.[1] Perennial candidates' existence lies in the fact
that in some countries, there are no laws that limit a number of times a person
can run for office, or laws that impose a non-negligible financial penalty on
registering to run for election.

59. Performative activism is activism done to increase one's social capital rather
than because of one's devotion to a cause.[1] It is often associated with surface-
level activism, referred to as slacktivism.

60. Photo-Op: Short for "photo opportunity," an event staged specifically for news
cameras to help a politician appear in magazines and newspapers, on television,
or online

61. Political apathy is a lack of interest or apathy towards politics.[1] It can consist
of interest apathy, voter apathy, and information apathy. It can be categorized as
the indifference of an individual and a lack of interest in participating in political
activities.[2] This includes lack of interest in elections, political events, public
meetings, and voting.
62. Political asylum: Protection given by a State to a person who has left their own
country because they oppose its government.

63. Political Suicide: A vote or action that is likely to be so unpopular with voters as
to cause a politician's probable loss in the next election

64. Pollster: A person or company that researches public opinion.

65. Pork Barrel: Wasteful and unnecessary projects that politicians secure for their
local districts, usually to gain favor with local voters. The term dates from the
days when salted pork was occasionally handed out to slaves from large barrels.
An observer once wrote that the mad rush of politicians to get their district's
share of treasury funds looked like slaves rushing to the pork barrel.
66. Post-partisanship is an approach to dispute resolution between political factions
that emphasizes compromise and collaboration over political ideology and party
discipline.[1] It does not imply neutrality.

67. Precinct: An administrative division of voters by neighborhood; smallest political

unit in U.S. politics. Cities and counties are divided into precinct polling districts
that have varying numbers of registered voters based on State law.

68. Pressure politics generally refers to political action which relies heavily on the
use of mass media and mass communications to persuade politicians that the
public wants or demands a particular action. However, it commonly includes
intimidation, threats, and other covert techniques as well.

69. Primary: A state election in which party members vote for a candidate from
within their party. The vote determines how many of that state's delegates each
candidate gets.
70. Pundit: A political analyst, commentator, or columnist who usually works for a
newspaper or magazine, or in broadcasting. Derived from a Hindi phrase
meaning "learned one."
71. Ratified: Formal approval by voters or other persons.

72. Reactionary: A militant conservative; opposite of "radical," which means

ultraliberal
73. Reality-based community is a derisive term for people who base judgments on
facts.
74. Red Tape: Government paperwork and procedures that are slow and difficult.
Stems from an eighteenth-century British practice of binding official papers with a
reddish twine.
75. Red-baiting, also known as reductio ad Stalinum (/ˈstɑːlɪnəm/), is an informal
logical fallacy that intends to discredit the validity of a political opponent and the
opponent's logical argument by accusing, denouncing, attacking, or persecuting
the target individual or group as anarchist, communist,[1] Marxist, socialist,
Stalinist, or fellow travelers towards these ideologies.[2] In the Philippines, it is
known as red-tagging.
76. Referendum: The legal process of submitting to the voters for their approval or
rejection of proposed state or rejection of proposed state of local laws or
constitutional amendments.

77. Rhetoric: The ability to use language effectively. The undue use of exaggeration
or display. The art of influencing others through the use of words.

78. Rider: An informal term for an amendment or provision that is not relevant to the
legislation where it is attached.

79. Safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g.

Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a
certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a
combination of both. In such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing
hands because of the political leanings of the electorate in the constituency
concerned and/or the popularity of the incumbent member.

80. Secession: is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political
entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. ... A secession
attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal is the creation of a new state or
entity independent from the group or territory it seceded from.

81. Silent Majority: The mass of Americans whose opinions are not loud and public,
but who together have enormous power. Popularized by President Richard
Nixon, who claimed that Vietnam War protesters comprised a minority, while a
"silent majority" supported the war.
82. Slate: Candidates for various offices running as a team; or a group of delegates
running on behalf of one candidate
83. Smoke-Filled Room: The sort of place where behind-the-scenes political
wheeling and dealing, often devious, occurs. Refers to the penchant of many
political operatives for smoking cigars.
84. Spin doctor: A spokesperson who gives a favorable interpretation of events to
the media, especially on behalf of a political personality or party.

85. Spin: A politician's attempt to shape the way the public looks at an issue or
event, much the way a tennis player uses spin to direct the ball. Political advisers
who spin are known as "spin doctors."
86. Strongman is a type of authoritarian political leader. Political scientists Brian Lai
and Dan Slater identify strongman rule as a form of authoritarian rule
characterized by autocratic military dictatorships, as distinct from three other
categories of authoritarian rule, specifically machine (oligarchic party
dictatorships); bossism (autocratic party dictatorships), and juntas (oligarchic
military dictatorships)

87. Student wing is a subsidiary, autonomous, or independently allied front of a

larger organization that is formed in order to rally support from students and
focus on student specific issues, typically of those attending college or university.
Student wings may also be discussion forums for student members and
supporters of the organization to debate policy and ideology.

88. Stump: To campaign in person on a local level

89. Substitute Amendment: An amendment that would replace existing language of
a bill or another amendment with its own.

90. Swing Vote: The undecided, usually independent, portion of the electorate that
can "swing" the outcome of an election one way or the other
91. Trial Balloon: An idea a politician suggests in order to observe the reaction. If
public reaction is favorable, the politician takes credit for it; if not, the idea dies
quickly.
92. Utopia: title of a book by Sir Thomas, published in Latin in 1516. The work
pictures an ideal state where all is ordered for the best for humanity as a whole
and where the evils of society, such as poverty and misery, have been
eliminated.

93. Veto: A power that allows the President, a governor or a mayor to refuse
approval of a piece of legislation. Federally, a President returns a vetoed bill to
the Congress, generally with a message. Congress can accept the veto or
attempt to override the veto by a 2/3 majority of those present and voting in both
the House and the Senate.

94. Welfare chauvinism or welfare state nationalism is the political notion that
welfare benefits should be restricted to certain groups, particularly to the natives
of a country as opposed to immigrants.

95. Whip: The party member who makes sure that all other members are present for
crucial votes and that they vote in accordance with the party line. The term
originated in British fox hunting, where the "whipper-in" was responsible for
keeping the hounds from straying.
96. Whistle-Stopping: The practice of making speeches in many towns in a short
time, often during a single day. When politicians traveled by train, small towns
 were called whistle-stops. Politicians would use the stop to deliver a quick
campaign speech, often from the back of the train, before heading to the next
stop.
97. Whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower)[1] is a person,
usually an employee, who exposes information or activity within a private, public,
or government organization that is deemed illegal, illicit, unsafe, fraud, or abuse
of taxpayer funds.
98. Witch Hunt: A vindictive, often irrational, investigation that preys on public fears.
Refers to witch hunts in 17th-century Salem, Massachusetts, where many
innocent women accused of witchcraft were burned at the stake or drowned.

99. Xenocentrism is the preference for the cultural practices of other cultures and
societies which can entail how they live, what they eat, rather than of one's own
way of life.
100. Yellow journalism and yellow press are American terms for journalism
and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate, well-researched
news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales.[1]
Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or
sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a
pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or
unethical fashion.