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.

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 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.

affidavit - a declaration in writing signed and sworn to under oath.

appeasement - giving in to unreasonable demands or threats out of weakness or stupidity. In political

discourse appeasement has a very negative connotation. It harks back to the build up 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 - money used to pay for government-approved expenditures.

arbitrary - derived from opinion, random choice, or chance. When people speak of an arbitrary decision
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.

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.

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. Keeping the balance of power on the European continent
was a cornerstone of British diplomacy-the concept being that if one power or coalition of powers got
too strong, the weaker states would make an alliance to combat it. Alliances therefore were not a
matter of ideology but of simple pragmatism; they would continually shift to maintain the balance of
power. In that way an equilibrium was maintained which discouraged wars. After World War II the idea
of the balance of power was in some ways superceded by what was termed the "balance of terror," but
balance of power diplomacy is always present in one form or another. For example in the 1980s, the
U.S. supported Iraq in its war against Iran because it did not want Iran to become the dominant power
in the region.

Strengthening Iraq maintained the regional balance of power. Balance of power politics is also a factor
in the U.S.'s decision to normalize relations with Vietnam. A strong Vietnam, it is believed, will act as a
check on the hegemony of China in the region.

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 favourable 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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

cheap money - also called easy money, the term refers to economic conditions in which there are low
interest rates and high credit availability. The opposite is tight money.

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.

clemency - leniency or mercy to an offender or enemy.