Government & Politics.
Direct Democracy: This is a form of democracy, in which people decide policy initiatives directly, by voting.
Policy: A course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organization or an individual.
Initiative: Leading action.
Representative Democracy: This is government founded and elected individuals elect the people. The groups are voted for by people.
Dictatorship: A country, government, or the form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a dictator.
Dictator: A person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government.
Communism: A system of social organization in which all property is owned by the community and each person contributes and receives according to their ability and needs- equality.
Capitalism: An economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
Appoint: Determine or decide on something.
Judge: Applies the law in courts.
Entrench: A fixed decision.
Budget: This is the governments tax raising and spending plans. It’s outlined once a year by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Chancellor of the Exchequer: The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters, equivalent to the role of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the Treasury in other nations.
By-election: An election held between general elections, usually because the sitting MP has died or resigned.
Cabinet: The group of senior ministers, at the head of the government.
Constituency: A geographical unit which elects a single MP. There will be 646 in the UK after the election. E.g. Redbridge, Dagenham, etc.
Deposit: £500 paid by candidates or their parties to be allowed to stand. It is returned if the candidate wins 5 per cent or more of the votes cost.
Devolution: The delegation of the powers to other parliamentary bodies within the UK, specifically the Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Island assemblies.
Delegation: Delegation is the assignment of responsibility or authority to another person to carry out specific activities. However, the person who delegated the work remains accountable for the outcome of the delegated work
First past the post: This is a term used to describe the UK’s parliamentary election system. It means a candidate only needs a simple majority – more votes than his or her rivals – to be elected.
Hung Parliament: If after an election, no party has an overall majority, then the party is said to be HUNG. The main parties will then try to form a coalition with one or more of the minor parties.
Landslide: The name given to an election which one party wins by a very large margin. Famous landslides in UK elections include labors victory in 1945, the conservative win in 1983, and the election which brought Tony Blair to power in 1997.
Manifesto: A public declaration of a party’s ideas and policies usually printed during the campaign. Once in power, a government is judged by how many of its manifesto promises it manages to deliver.
MP, Member of Parliament: Strictly, this includes members of the House of the Lords, but in practice means only members of the House of the Commons. When an election is called, Parliament is dissolved and there are no more MP’s until it assembles again.
Opposition: The largest party not in government is known as the official opposition. It receives extra parliamentary funding in recognition of its status.
Proportional Representation: Systems of voting, which aims to give parties the representation in a parliament, justified by their level of voting support.
Referendum: A binding vote of the whole country on a single issue.
Speaker: An MP elected by other members of the Commons to chair debates and deal with the running of the Commons. By tradition, an MP who is speaker is not opposed by any of the main parties