sabotage -
intentional obstruction or destruction of
organized activity. sacred cow - any
principle or thing that is regarded as being
beyond attack, or untouchable. Sometimes also
called "third rail." In the U.S., the Social
Security program used to be considered a sacred
cow, and no politician would dare risk
proposing to cut it. That however, has changed
during the twenty-first century as more people
regard Social Security as in need of
reform. sanctions -
punitive measures, usually taken by several
countries in concert, designed to put pressure
on a country to change its policy. The U.N., for
example, has put economic sanctions on Serbia in
order to deter it from supporting the Bosnian
Serbs in the war in Bosnia. Sanctions may be
economic (banning trade, for example) or
diplomatic (withdrawal of relations). They are
usually imposed because a country is considered
to be in violation of international law.
sanctuary - a place of refuge or
protection, where a person is immune from
punishment by the law. satellite
country - a country that is in effect, although
not in name, controlled by another, usually
larger country. Before the fall of communism,
the countries of Eastern Europe were satellites
of the Soviet Union, that is, they could not
pursue any economic, social or foreign policies
that the Soviet Union did not approve of. [The
following is a comment from one of our readers,
Richard Pond, who argues that Latin American
states could also be described as satellite
states of the United States during the Cold War:
"When Chile elected a government Washington
didn't like, in the early 70s, Nixon and
Kissinger instructed the CIA to overthrow the
Chilean government. When Castro came to power
in Cuba, the US slapped on an economic blockade
and attempted unsuccessfully to overthrow the
government. When the Sandinistas came to power
in Nicaragua, the US funded and trained the
Contras, and carried out a war of economic and
paramilitary aggression against Nicaragua until
1990 when it finally got its way (tactics that
were condemned by the World Court as
illegal)."]
scarcity - an axiom
of economics is that there are not enough
resources to go around. There is always a
situation of scarcity in that there are less
goods available than there are people who want
them (even if there are plenty of goods, there
are always people for whom the goods are too
expensive). In this sense, economics is the
science of the allocation of scarce
resources. secession - the act of
seceding, or withdrawing (from some organized
entity such as a nation), as when Slovenia and
Croatia decided to secede from Yugoslavia in
1991. secondary boycott - a boycott
in which oneof the parties involved attempts to
exert an influence over a third party. Usually
this is when a labor union, in a labor dispute,
attempts to put pressure on an employer who is
not direcly involved in the dispute, in the
hope that this will eventually produce pressure
on the employer directly involved. Most secondary
boycotts are illegal under the Taft-Hartley Act
of 1947. See also boycott. secret
ballot - a vote that takes place in secret, that
is, one where the voter does not have to
disclose for whom he voted. sect - a
religious group that breaks away from a
mainstream church. Can also refer to any group
of people that have a common philosophy and
common leadership. sectarian -
characteristic of a sect; devoted to a sect. The
term is often used to refer to conflicts where
religious allegiances play a large factor, as
in sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
secular - not connected with religion or
the sacred, as, for example, a secular
education would be one that is not based on
religious teachings or principles.
secularization - the process of becoming secular;
the separation of civil or educational
institutions from ecclesiastical control.
security - something that gives protection
or safety. National security, for example,
relates to policies that provide for effective
national defense against an external or
internal threat. sedition - plotting
or rebelling against, or stirring up resistance
to, a government. segregation -
the separation of people in society-in schools,
the workplace, and public places-on the basis,
usually, of race. The system of apartheid in
South Africa was based on the principle of
segregation, and segregation was the norm in
the American South until the civil rights
movement of the 1950s and 1960s brought it to
an end. self-determination - the
principle that no nation should in peacetime
interfere in the internal affairs of another
nation. The principle is not always adhered to,
particularly when a great power considers that a
particular country falls within its sphere of
influence. See also non-intervention.
separation of powers - a system of
government in which the three branches of
government-executive, legislative, and
judicial-are independent of each other. Each
has powers that the others cannot impinge upon.
The doctrine was first formulated in the
eighteenth century by the French philosopher
Montesquieu. The Founding Fathers thought that
the separation of powers, which is the system
of checks and balances that is enshrined in the
constitution, was the best way to prevent
tyranny.
separatism - a movement by
a region or territory or ethnic group to break
away from a country of which it is a part. After
the fall of communism in the 1990s, separatism
broke out in many regions in Europe, as groups of
people with a distinct cultural identity sought
to free themselves from the larger nation that
formerly contained them.
servitude - the state of being in slavery or
bondage. It can also mean compulsory service or
labor, such as a prisoner may undergo as
punishment. show trials - trials
held in totalitarian societies that are a
travesty of justice and a mockery of a fair
trial. The defendants are certain to be
convicted, whether guilty or not, the trial
merely serving as a pretext to dispose of them,
and a warning to others. The most notorious show
trials were held in the Soviet Union under
Stalin from 1935 to 1938, in which many of
Stalin's fellow revolutionaries and Russian army
leaders were charged and convicted of treason.
Historians doubt whether any of them were in
fact guilty.
short-range missiles
- missiles that can carry nuclear warheads over
a distance of 300-600 miles. The numbers of
these missiles was greatly reduced by the INF
treaty in 1987.
shuttle diplomacy -
first used to describe former U.S. Secretary of
State Henry Kissinger's personal role during
the period following the 1973 Yom Kippur War when
he was helping to negotiate a disengagement
agreement between Israel and the defeated armies
of Syria and Egypt. Shuttle diplomacy is now
widely used to describe a process whereby a
diplomat, envoy, or other negiotator from one
nation personally travels back and forth (i.e.
"shuttles") between different states
that are in conflict and meets with the leaders
of each side in an attempt to broker a
ceasefire or forge some other diplomatic
solution. Examples of U.S. shuttle diplomacy
include the work of U.S. Middle East Coordinator
Dennis Ross in 1995 and 1996, who
"shuttled" many times between Israeli
leaders and those in the PLO (Palestine
Liberation Organization) in an attempt to
further the Middle East peace process. Other
instances include the attempts in 1998 of U.S.
envoy Richard Holbrooke to bring peace between
Yugoslavia and its secessionist rebels in Kosovo
province. In November 1998, U.S. envoy Anthony
Lake practiced shuttle diplomacy when he traveled
back and forth between Ethiopia and Eritrea in
an effort to end a border conflict.
silk stocking district - an area where wealthy,
aristocratic people live.
silver-tongued - eloquent and persuasive. Used of
politicians or others who have persuasive
oratorical skills. sit-down strike -
a strike in which striking employees take
possession of the employer's property
(machinery, etc.) and prevent it from being
used. sitting on the fence -
refusing to take a stand one way or another.
Politicans are often accused of sitting on the
fence when, nervous of offending powerful
interests on both sides of an issue, they try to
avoid stating a clear position one way or the
other. skinheads - skinheads,
so-called because of their shaven heads,
originated in England, but are now found
worldwide. Most of them are aged between 13 and
25. Many groups of skinheads espouse a crude form
of nationalism, and have been responsible for
thousands of incidents in Europe and North
America of beatings, fire-bombings, and
race-baiting. Many skinheads, who tend to hang
around in small groups, are linked to other
political right-wing groups, and to each other,
through shared music (a form of rock called
"oi", originating in England) and
skinhead magazines. social contract
- the political theory that a state and its
citizens have an unwritten agreement between
them, a social contract into which they
voluntarily enter. In the theory of Thomas Hobbes
(1588-1679), such a social contract was
necessary to lift mankind out of a primitive
"state of nature" in which life was
"nasty, brutish and short."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) also postulated
an original state of nature before there was
organized government, but for him it was an
idyllic, carefree condition. The state became
necessary as individual inequalities developed,
but the only social contract that would not
corrupt mankind was one based on direct
democracy in which the general will was the basis
for law. social Darwinism - the
evolutionary theories of the natural historian
Charles Darwin (1809-18820), especially the
idea of the "survival of the fittest"
and "natural selection," applied to the
sphere of human society. Social Darwinists, who
in America were associated with the British
philosopher Herbert Spencer, advocated an extreme
form of laissez faire economics, and supported
individualism to the extent of opposing
compulsory free education. social
justice - a situation in which all individuals
and groups in a society are treated fairly and
equally, regardless of race, gender, or any
other factor that could be used to create
situations of injustice. Social
Security - the Social Security Act was passed in
1935; it established a national social security
service, which included benefits for the
elderly, unemployed, and also aid to the states
for the care of the old, dependent children,
and the blind. At first benefits were for private
sector employees only, but in the 1950s Social
Security was extended to self-employed, state
and local employees, household and farm workers,
and members of the armed forces and clergy.
Disability insurance was added in 1954. In 1965
Medicare, which provided health insurance for
those over 65, and Medicaid, which provided
health care for the poor, were added. In 1972 a
law was enacted that linked Social Security
benefits to the rise in the cost of living. The
result has been that over the last four decades
Social Security has taken up more and more of
the federal budget. As of 2010, Social Security
takes up nearly 21 percent of the federal
budget, and Medicare/Medicaid takes up just over
20 percent. social services -
services provided by the government to improve
social welfare for those who need it, such as
the elderly, the poor, the disabled, and
children. Services might include insurance,
subsizided housing, health care, family
allowances, food subsidies. social
stratification - the layering of a society, in
the sense that some people will be above others
in the social scale, in terms of class, income,
education etc. For example, societies in which a
class system is strongly present can be said to
be highly stratified. social welfare
- the well-being of the community. Social welfare
is an intangible; it is hard to quantify. It
cannot be measured in terms to the quantity of
goods and services available, because this is to
equate welfare with material abundance. Social
welfare is not the same as standard of living.
The utility of something, the ability of a good
or service to satisfy human want, will vary
from person to person. A more accurate evaluation
of social welfare would have to be something
like a quality of life index, and include such
things as environmental factors (quality of air
and water), social indicators like levels of
crime and drug abuse, availability of essential
services like education and hospitals, and other
non-material factors like religious faith. The
more diverse the community the harder it is to
evaluate social welfare, since different groups
may place widely varying values on different
aspects of community life. socialism
- a political system in which the means of
production, distribution and exchange are
mostly owned by the state, and used, at least in
theory, on behalf of the people. The idea
behind socialism is that the capitalist system
is intrinsically unfair, because it concentrates
wealth in a few hands and does nothing to
safeguard the overall welfare of the majority.
Under socialism, the state redistributes the
wealth of society in a more equitable way, with
the ideal of social justice replacing the profit
motive. Socialism as a system is anathema to
most Americans, although many social welfare
programs like Medicare and Medicaid (once derided
by their opponents as "socialized
medicine") and Social Security are
socialistic in effect, since they are
controlled by the government and effect a measure
of income redistribution that could not happen
if market forces were the sole factor in the
economic life of society. See also communism;
Leninism; Marxism.
socialization - the
process by which individuals adapt themselves
to the norms, values and common needs of the
society. society - any group of
people who collectively make up an
interdependent community.
sovereign - one who exercises supreme power in
state???a king or queen; also means independent
of others, as in a sovereign state.
sovereignty - independent political authority, as
in, those who oppose their country joining the
European Union fear the loss of national
sovereignty to a central, European body. Also
means the quality of being supreme in power or
authority, as in sovereignty was vested in the
National Assembly. speculation - the
practice of buying something (usually
securities, commodities, or foreign exchange)
at a fairly high risk for the purpose of
selling the same thing later for an above average
return. sphere of influence - areas
in which another state wishes to exert its
influence so that no hostile government or
ideology can take root there. For example, the
U.S. regards Central America as coming within its
sphere of influence, which accounts for its
attempt during the 1980s to overthrow the
communist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. Before
its demise in 1991, the Soviet Union regarded
Eastern Europe as its sphere of influence, which
is why it felt justified in invading
Czechoslovakia in 1968 when that country
appeared to be adopting more liberal policies. By
and large, each superpower acccepted the
validity of each other's clearly defined spheres
of influence, although there were many areas
where spheres of influence were disputed.
stagflation - in economics, high
unemployment and inflation taking place at the
same time. standing orders - the
rules for parliamentary procedures that apply to
all sessions until changed or repealed.
Star Wars - see Strategic Defense
Initiative stare decisis - a Latin
phrase which literally means "Let the
decision stand." It refers to a legal
doctrine that emphasizes the binding force of
precedents. If there is a legal precedent, that
precedent should be followed in all similar
cases. START - Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty I was signed in 1991 by the U.S.
and the Soviet Union. It provided for a
one-third reduction of nuclear missiles, over a
seven-year period. It was the first treaty to
mandate reductions in nuclear weapons by the
superpowers. START II was signed by the U.S and
Russia in 1993. It called for both sides to
reduce their long-range nuclear weapons to
one-third of then current levels within ten
years, and to eliminate land-based multiple
warhead missiles. START expired in 2009, and a
new treaty was signed in April 2010 by the
United States and Russia. As of late 2010, it
had not been ratified by the U.S. Senate.
states' rights - in the U.S. system of
government, the rights that are given to the
states rather than the federal government. Often
the phrase states' rights is used by people who
feel that federal policies are interfering with
their own rights. Opponents of the civil rights
movement in the 1950s and 1960s, for example,
invoked the idea of states' rights to block
federally mandated desegregation.
statesman - a person who shows great wisdom and
skill in the handling of the affairs of
government. Being a political leader does not of
itself make a statesman, and few would attain
to such a designation without internationally
acknowledged wisdom in foreign affairs. Statesmen
are often perceived as being above the partisan
fray of politics, able to discern, and having
the courage to articulate, what the real
long-term interests of a country are. See also
leadership. status quo - the
existing state of affairs, at any given time, as
in "people opposed to the proposed changes
fought to maintain the status quo."
status - condition or position with regard
to law, as in his status was that of a legal
alien; position or rank, as in his high status in
the academic world was unchallenged.
statute - in the broad sense, any law or
rule. More specifically,a statute is a law
enacted by legislation. steering
committee - a committee within a legislative body
that facilitates the passage of legislation, by
arranging the order of business, mobilizing votes,
etc. stimulus - an aspect of fiscal
policy, in which a government creates more
spending power in the economy by reducing taxes
or increasing its spending. In 2009, for
example, the Obama administration passed a $787
billion stimulus bill designed to help the U.S.
economy recover from severe recession.
storm in a tea cup - a big fuss about a
small matter. straddle the fence -
to adopt an ambiguous position on an issue, in
the hope of winning support from both
sides. Strategic Defense Initiative
- also known as S.D.I. and Star Wars. S.D.I. was
announced by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. It
was designed to create a completely new form of
national defense, through the creation of a
defensive shield around the United States,
which would allow incoming nuclear weapons to
be destroyed by laser guns before they hit their
target. Reagan believed that S.D.I. could put
an end to nuclear weapons by making them
useless. However, many experts were certain
that S.D.I. could not possibly work at all;
others said it could not protect the entire U.S.
population and would merely force the Soviet
Union to aim more nuclear warheads at the U.S.
But in spite of these concerns, the Reagan
administration committed large resources to the
development of S.D.I., and it was an importnat
factor in negotiations with the Soviet Union
during Reagan's two terms of office. (The
Soviets opposed the development of S.D.I.) The
administration of President George H. W. Bush
(1989-1993) was less enthusiastic about Star
Wars, and the idea gradually was dropped,
especially since the end of the Cold War made a
nuclear attack on the U.S. less likely. Research
into anti-missile defense systems still
continues, however. strategy - the
science of planning military operations, as in
U.S. strategy during the Iraq War. Also used
more loosely to refer to any form of planning
for action, as in the President's strategy for
the election campaign. straw vote -
an unofficial vote that is used to either to
predict the outcome of an official vote, or to
gauge the relative strength of candidates for
office in a future election. For example, long
before the Republican caucuses take place for
the selection of a nominee for president, straw
votes will have been conducted in various
states. A good showing in a straw vote can give
a candidate a boost, but does not necessarily
predict later success. strawman - a
weak argument or opposing point of view that is
set up by a speaker so that he can knock it
down easily and appear to win an argument or
debate. Sometimes a strawman may represent an
exaggerated position that none of the speaker's
opponents is in fact advocating-but the speaker
hopes that his listeners do not know this.
strike - the withdrawal of labor by a
group of workers, acting collectively, in order
to achieve some goal such as higher wages or
better working conditions, or to resist
management proposals for changes that they
oppose. structural unemployment -
job losses caused by major shifts in the
economic environment, and which are hard to
alleviate. For example, if the coal mining
industry in a country is in a long-term decline,
it will create structural unemployment: a body
of workers who are not easily retrained, centered
in particular areas, where new industry cannot
be quickly introduced. Structural unemployment
is to distinguished from short-term fluctuations
in unemployment caused by workers moving
between jobs. subpoena - a writ
ordering a person to appear in court.
subsidy - a grant made out of public funds to
support some private enterprise that is
considered to promote the public good. Often
debated in the U.S. is the question of whether
the government should continue to subsidize the
arts, through organizations such as the
National Endowment for the Humanities.
subsistence - means of support or
livelihood; means of living. People who have
enough only to cover basic needs are considered
to be living on a subsistence income.
subversive - tending to undermine, disrupt
or overthrow something already established, as
in lawlessness and violence are subversive of
public order. A subversive individual or group
is one that tries to undermine the existing
form of society or government.
succession - the assumption of an office, after
the previous incumbent's period of authority
expires, for whatever reason (incapacity,
resignation, death). Also refers to the order
in which persons will replace a king or
president if those figures are no longer able to
perform their functions. For example, in the
U.S., the Vice-President is first in the line of
succession to the presidency; the Speaker of
the House of Representatives is second. In
Britain, Prince Charles is first in the line of
succession to the throne. suffrage -
the right to vote. Democratic societies are
characterized by universal suffrage, which
means that all adult citizens have the right to
vote. The U.S. has had universal suffrage since
1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment was
enacted, that extended the right to vote to
women.
summit diplomacy - meetings
between the heads of governments of major powers
that discuss the relations between them. During
the Cold War, summit diplomacy developed as a
major means by which the U.S. and the Soviet
Union tested each other and tried to reach a
rapprochement, or at least understanding of
each other's position, on a variety of issues.
Summit meetings were dramatic and comparatively
infrequent events, and the hopes and fears of
the world often seemed to hang on the outcome.
Since the end of the Cold War, the importance
of such summit meetings has vastly decreased and
now they seem merely routine matters.
superpower - a
superpower is a state that is powerful
economically and militarily, that can act
influentially over most of the globe, that can
influence the behavior of other states and
maintain that influence for an extended period
of time, and can also take effective action on
its own, without needing the consent of other
nations. In the post-World War II era there have
been two superpowers, the United States, and
the Soviet Union. Since the demise of the
Soviet Union in 1991, the U.S. is the only state
that could be called a superpower. However,
even a superpower faces restrictions on what it
can do to accomplish its goals. The U.S. felt
compelled to assemble an international
coalition to fight the Persian Gulf War in 1991,
rather than go it alone. This also applied to
the war in Afghanistan, in which the U.S.
established an international coalition before
invading in 2001. The U.S. invasion of Iraq in
2003 was also a multinational effort: 39
nations were part of the U.S.-led coalition. Some
of these nations may have felt compelled to
join to keep their powerful U.S. ally happy,
but generally speaking, now there is no longer a
Soviet Union as a common enemy, more nations
feel free to pursue their own course, without
reference to Washington. And in spite of the fact
that the U.S. is the sole standing superpower,
the political world is now multipolar rather
than bipolar: other powers are on the rise,
such as Japan, Germany, China, and India, whose
status as economic superpowers gives them an
increasing influence in world affairs.
supply and demand - the economic mechanism
that operates in a free enterprise system, and
that is responsible for prices, based on the
assumption that sellers want to sell at the
highest price they can, and buyers want to buy
at the lowest possible price. If something is
in heavy demand but short supply, prices will
go up, and vice versa. A rise in price will
reduce demand and expand supply, and vice versa
(i.e. a fall in price will expnd demand and
contract supply.) Prices tend to stabilize at the
level where demand equals supply.
surplus value - the difference betwen a worker's
wages and the value of the goods he produces.
According to Karl Marx, surplus value was a
measure of the exploitation of the worker by
the capitalist, i.e. the worker contributed
more than he received, and the profit went to the
employer. symposium - a conference
organized for the discussion of a particular
subject. syndicalism - a form of
socialism that aimed to combine public ownership
of the means of production with the elimination
of central government. This was to be
accomplished through the labor movement, which
would overthrow the government; labor unions
would then become the fundamental element in the
new society. Syndicalism originated in Europe
during the 1890s, and had some influence up to
World War I; the movement petered out in the
1920s. syndicate - an association
between two or more companies to carry out a
joint enterprise that requires large capital,
often to establish control of a particular
market.
synthesis - the putting of
two or more things together to create a whole,
as in the bill before Congress represented a
synthesis of many different
proposals.
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