Glossary B: Additional Terms

These terms are not commonly the subject of specific questions on the AP Comparative Government and Politics exam, but they could be tested and are helpful for understanding context and providing examples.

• Anarchism a political ideology that believes liberty and equality are best achieved by abolishing the state, which anarchists see as the main impediment to advancing human liberty and equality
• Associational autonomy the concept that citizens have a right to independently form organized groups to express a particular interest
• Asymmetric federalism Russia’s constitutional principle that gives uneven amounts of power and autonomy to the lower regional governments, particularly giving more local power in republics populated by non-Russian ethnic groups
• Authority power or responsibility that comes from a legally established office of the state
• Autonomy the extent to which a state can act and implement policy decisions regardless of the public’s support or lack thereof
• Backbenchers Members of Parliament (MPs) from the majority party who have less status and seniority than leaders and senior MPs; they sit in the benches farther from the floor in the House of Commons
• Baha’i a minority religion in Iran, unrecognized by Iran’s constitution and persecuted in Iranian society, that teaches that God speaks to all people through all religions in different ways
• Biafran Civil War a conflict (1966–1970) in which the southern state of Biafra attempted to secede from Nigeria in an effort to take full control of oil rents from international energy companies
• Black market economic activity that occurs illegally in spite of regulations and controls imposed by the state
• Boko Haram an extreme Islamic terrorist organization, whose name translates to “against Western education,” that uses kidnapping and violence to prevent secularization and the education of women and girls in northeastern Nigeria
• Bourgeoisie the property-owning middle class that came to wealth and political power during the Industrial Revolution
• Brexit a shorthand name for the 2017 referendum Britain wherein voters decided to exit the European Union and the ongoing process to negotiate the exit with the European Union
• Brezhnev Doctrine a foreign policy of the Soviet Union during the administration of Leonid Brezhnev that asserted the right to intervene militarily within neighboring communist states if the Communist Party was in danger of losing power in those states
• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) a state-funded media company that operates and reports independently and free from state interference
• Cabinet a body of high-ranking officials in the executive branch that is responsible for advising the chief executive, implementing public policy, and managing bureaucratic agencies
• Cadres work groups in communist systems that are led by ideologically committed Communist Party members rather than technical experts
• Camarillas in Mexico, informal personal networks around political leaders or aspiring public officials in Mexico used for the advancement of their careers
• Capacity the extent to which a state can effectively execute a policy decision it has made
• Caudillo in Mexico, a personalist leader wielding military or political power; used interchangeably with the term “dictator” or “strongman” in Mexican politics
• Causation when evaluating the relationship of two variables, the evidentiary indication that changes to the independent variable cause statistically significant changes to the dependent variable
• Central bank a state institution charged with managing the country’s money supply, usually in order to prevent inflation and promote employment
• Central Committee a body of the Communist Party that is chosen by the larger Party Congress and is ostensibly empowered to choose the Politburo and senior leadership positions
• Centrifugal forces factors that divide people in a society, such as ethnic, religious, and regional differences
• Centripetal forces factors that help to unite people in a society, such as sharing a common ethnicity, national identity, language, religion, culture, and history
• Chechnya one of Russia’s regional republics, populated by the Chechen ethnic minority; a point of concern for Russia because of Chechnyan separatist movements
• Citizenship status given to individuals by the state that confers specific rights to the individual, such as the right to vote in elections
• Civil law (qanun) laws regarding any issues unrelated to doctrines or teachings of Islam
• Code law a legal system that attempts to exhaustively express the law in comprehensive legal codes when the law is first passed
• Coinciding cleavages social divisions that tend to run in the same direction, dividing societies along the same fault line repeatedly and creating more intense political conflict between groups
• Cold War a period of prolonged but generally nonviolent conflict, lasting from the mid-1940s to the late 1980s, between the Soviet Union and its allies and the United States and its allied European powers
• Collective responsibility a custom of British politics in which cabinet ministers hold themselves responsible to support all policies of the government collectively or to resign if they do not feel capable of doing so
• Collectivization the Soviet state’s brutal seizure of land and other property from peasants across the countryside as part of jump-starting industrial development
• Common law a legal system that enacts laws expressing general principles, allowing bureaucratic and judicial discretion in interpretation of the application of the law in specific cases, and adhering to precedents of court decisions regarding the interpretation
• Communism a political ideology asserting that liberty and equality can be achieved only through fundamental economic equality of all people via state ownership of private property
• Communist Manifesto a political pamphlet, published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848, calling upon the world’s proletarian workers to organize a revolution against the bourgeoisie
• Communist Party of the Russian Federation a party created from the remnants of the powerful Communist Party of the Soviet Union; now a minority opposition party in Russia
• Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) a workers’ union that served as a major piece of the PRI’s state-corporatist network during PRI rule; now ostensibly independent, it still maintains deep ties to the politics of the PRI
• Confucianism a system of philosophy or religion, based on the ideals of Confucius and prominent in Chinese culture, that emphasizes social harmony and self-improvement
• Conservative a political attitude that prefers the status quo to change, especially fast-paced change, and doubts its benefit to society
• Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation one of two high courts in Russia that are empowered with judicial review over acts passed by the Duma
• Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1909 uprising that resulted in the creation of Iran’s first constitution and of both the Majlis and Guardian Council as new legislative institutions to check the power of the executive
• Constitution of 1993 Russia’s constitution, drafted after the collapse of the Soviet Union and ratified by referendum, establishing a federal presidential republic
• Cooptation to assimilate or take a smaller group into a larger group so as to prevent opposition from the smaller group
• Correlation when evaluating the relationship of two variables, the evidentiary indication that changes in one of the variables corresponds closely to changes in the other variable, though there is not necessarily enough evidence to indicate which is the cause of which
• Crimea a former Ukrainian territory claimed by Russia after a referendum in 2015 and currently governed as one of Russia’s republics; Ukraine continues to claim the territory
• Cross-cutting cleavages social divisions that tend to run in multiple directions and therefore reduce the overall intensity of each political conflict
• Cultural Revolution (China) the term for the Chinese Communist Party’s policies from 1966 to 1976; they attempted to purify the ideology of the country of capitalist and democratic values and restore and enhance the Maoist ideology
• Cultural Revolution (Iran) Khomeini’s program to rid the country of Western and secular influences and produce a purer commitment to Islam
• Dalai Lama the spiritual leader of Tibet; a target of the Chinese state because of his advocacy of Tibetan autonomy and independence
• Democracy Wall Movement a period of time in the late 1970s and 1980s during which Chinese citizens were posting reports and opinions freely on city walls without significant restrictions from the state
• Democratic centralism Vladimir Lenin’s model of making political decisions centrally within the inner party elite, though ostensibly for the benefit of the majority of the people
• Dependency theory a theory asserting that former colonies were made to be dependent on their colonial masters and that economic development of the former colonies would require self-sufficiency in manufacturing and industry through a public-policy program of trade restrictions
• De-Stalinization Nikita Khrushchev’s program of ending purges and the cult of personality around the Soviet Union’s leader in the aftermath of Joseph Stalin’s death (1953)
• Developed countries sovereign states with a high standard of living and advanced technological infrastructure
• Developing countries sovereign states in various stages of achieving economic advancement that have lower standards of living than developed countries; also known as Less Developed Countries (LDCs)
• Direct democracy a form of democracy in which the people may vote directly on matters of policy rather than only to elect representatives
• Eco a proposed transnational currency for the West African Monetary Zone
• Economic equality providing all citizens with basic equal minimums in their standard of living through welfare-state policies
• Economic freedom allowing citizens and private institutions to freely choose what to do with their private property and income without state interference
• Ejidos agricultural collective land grants given to peasants by the Cardenas government
• Environment in political systems theory, the political culture and expectations of elites and non-elites that surround the functioning of political institutions
• Extreme poverty a measure of how many people live below a certain income level and for whom day-to-day life and survival are thus difficult and tenuous
• Failed states states that are so weak that they are incapable of providing necessary public goods and services to their citizens
• Falun Gong a pseudo-spiritual movement persecuted by the Chinese state as an illegally formed civil society organization
• Fascism a political ideology that rejects the notions of liberty and equality as worthwhile values and exalts the state, nation, or racial group as supreme over individual rights
• Federal Public Chamber a bureaucratic agency empowered to approve or block NGOs from operating in Russia
• Feedback in political systems theory, the reactions to a public policy by citizens, the media, interest groups, and other actors outside of the state
• Five-year plans Soviet plans for industrial development establishing production goals and quotas for a designated five-year period
• Fixed-Term Parliaments Act of 2011 a law passed by Parliament that established a fixed five-year election cycle starting in 2015; the prime minister retains the power to call snap elections but now needs a two-thirds majority instead of a simple majority
• Foundations (bonyads) institutions now managing large state-owned enterprises that were created after the Islamic Revolution to manage property confiscated from the prerevolution elites
• Fourth Republic the regime of Nigeria since the adoption of the Constitution of 1999, which created a federal republic with a presidential system of government
• Free trade international trade left to its natural course on the basis of market forces without state barriers, such as tariffs, quotas, and other restrictions
• General Secretary the senior leadership position in the Communist Party and the de-facto chief executive in the Soviet communist system
• Glasnost Mikhail Gorbachev’s program of opening Soviet society to allow the formation of independent groups and reduce controls on freedom of expression
• Great Chinese Famine a mass starvation event in China (1958–1962) that killed 20 to 45 million people and coincided with the policies of the Great Leap Forward
• Great Leap Forward an aggressive, forced collectivization and industrialization campaign starting in 1957 that resulted in disastrous famines and economic decline
• Green Movement a protest movement originating after many Iranians believed that the official results of the 2009 election were fraudulent
• Guanxi Chinese word for “connection”; it is used to describe the importance of patron-client relationships in Chinese politics
• Gulag forced-labor camps for political prisoners in remote parts of the USSR during the Soviet era
• Haciendas privately owned land that the Cardenas government seized and redistributed to peasants in the form of ejido land grants
• Hereditary peers members of the House of Lords who inherit their position by birth status
• Hostage crisis of 1979–1980 the seizure of the American embassy by students loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini; the American diplomatic staff was held hostage for 444 days
• Household responsibility system reforms by Deng Xiaoping that provided market incentives to China’s rural economy by requiring peasants to pay taxes to the state in return for the rights to grow crops and sell them at a profit
• House of Lords the upper house of Britain’s Parliament, which has very limited powers as a result of gradual reforms
• Hundred Flowers Campaign a policy under Mao Zedong from 1956 to 1957 that allowed open discussion and criticism of the policies of the Communist Party and their results; it ended in a crackdown against the dissidents
• Hung parliament a situation in which no party secures a majority in parliamentary elections and the parties are unable to agree on a combined coalition government; its result is new elections
• Identity politics the tendency in Nigerian politics of tribal or ethnic loyalties to supersede concerns of the national public interest
• Import quota in international trade, a limitation on the amount of a particular product that may be imported
• Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) an independent election-regulation agency in Nigeria, in place since the advent of the Fourth Republic, that has been accused by critics of weighing its decisions in favor of the government in many elections
• Inflation a general rise in the level of prices in an economy
• Inputs in political systems theory, the demands and expressions of support that individuals and groups make to political institutions
• Interest aggregation activity in which political demands of groups are combined into policy programs
• Interest articulation a way for members of a society to express their needs to a system of government
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) an organization of countries that raises money through contributions from member states and assists countries with particularly problematic debt situations, usually by prescribing neoliberal economic reforms attached to the assistance money
• Iron Curtain a metaphor used to describe the division of Europe between communist countries and liberal democracies
• Iron rice bowl a Maoist-era Chinese term for the welfare-state guarantees of housing and jobs to citizens
• Koran the holy text of Islam believed by Muslims to have been dictated by God to the Prophet Muhammad
• Kulaks landowning peasants who were persecuted in Joseph Stalin’s collectivization program
• Kuomintang (KMT) the ruling nationalist party of China from 1927 to 1948; it fought against the Communist Party during the Chinese Civil War
• Law Lords a group within the House of Lords that acted as the highest appellate court in Britain until the creation of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
• Left an economic ideology and policies that seek to control or restrain market forces for the purpose of providing more economic equality and economic security
• Liberal a political attitude that embraces political change through existing political institutions and their reform rather than through radical transformation or revolution
• Liberal democracy a system of government by the whole population with an emphasis on principles of classical liberalism, including protection of rights and freedom of expression
• Liberal Democratic Party a national “third” party in Britain with a centrist ideology
• Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) an extreme right-wing nationalist minority opposition party in Russia
• Life peers members of the House of Lords who are appointed for a lifetime term; their seats are not transferred to their firstborn child
• “Loans for shares” scandal a scandal in the 1996 Russian presidential election in which Boris Yeltsin’s campaign received loans and favorable media coverage from wealthy Russian oligarchs, after which the Russian government sold shares in state-owned companies to the oligarchs at apparent discounted prices
• Long March a retreat by the communist forces (1934–1935) during which Mao and the communists recruited new forces and built support among peasants across the countryside
• Loyal opposition the principal party in opposition to the party that forms the government; it is opposed to the policies of the government but loyal to the country and the regime
• Macroeconomics the part of economics concerned with large-scale or general economic factors, such as interest rates and national productivity
• Magna Carta an agreement made between England’s king and nobility in 1215 that established limitations on the power of the king; an early example of constitutionalism
• Mandate of Heaven during the dynastic period, a description used in China for the choice by collective ancestral wisdom of who should hold political power
• Maoism a system of thought and ideology, based on the ideals of Mao Zedong, that emphasizes collectivism, egalitarianism, and the necessity of individual participation in class struggle
• Maquiladoras factories in Mexico that are largely owned by foreign multinational corporations
• Marja leading Shi’a clerics who were eligible to become Supreme Leader until reforms in 1989 opened the selection to a wider pool of clerics
• Market any setting in which supply and demand interact with one another to determine prices and distribution of goods and services
• Marxism a political and economic philosophy, based on the ideals of Karl Marx, that seeks to create a classless society through shared ownership of the means of production
• Mass line a principle of Maoism emphasizing the need for political leaders and elites to stay close and connected to the peasantry
• Mercantilism an economic policy designed to maximize the state’s profit from trade
• “Mexican Miracle” high GDP growth that was sustained for much of the period from the 1940s through the 1970s as a result of high energy prices and economic reforms
• Microeconomics the part of economics concerned with single factors and the effects of individual economic decisions
• “Middle Kingdom” a Chinese conception of the state of China and its people as central to the story of the world; evidence of Chinese ethnocentrism
• “Military in barracks” a term used during periods of military rule to describe military officials who remain in the traditional role of defending the nation or enforcing laws rather than making policy
• “Military in government” a term used during periods of military rule to describe military officials who hold positions of policymaking power rather than traditional military roles
• Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance Iranian government agency charged with censoring media deemed to be un-Islamic
• “Missing girls” a phenomenon in China of a much larger male-to-female population ratio because of sex-selective abortions; a result of the one-child policy
• Mixed economy an economy in which the government plays a strong role of ownership and operation of industries, regulation, and provision of welfare-state benefits while preserving a role for the market
• Money an item or record used for payment of goods and services and for storing and measuring value
• “Monopoly on violence” a state’s sovereign power to use force legitimately and to determine what the legitimate and illegitimate uses of force are; Max Weber used this phrase to define the nature of a state
• Nashi a youth group created and funded by the Russian state that worked for the election and agenda of Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev
• National Front a nationalist party that briefly held power in the Majlis and advocated nationalization of Iran’s natural resources; its leaders were driven out in 1956 by Operation Ajax
• National Health Service (NHS) Britain’s public health service system, which provides health care to all British citizens at taxpayer expense
• Nationalism a sense of pride in national identity that carries political implications, such as the desire for sovereign self-rule
• New Economic Policy (NEP) reforms made by Vladimir Lenin from 1921 until his death in 1924; they allowed collective farmers to sell excess produce for a profit
• Niger Delta an oil-rich region in the south of Nigeria where the Niger River flows into the ocean; a central point of ethnic conflict over resource control
• Noblesse oblige a concept from medieval times of the nobility’s responsibility to care for their serfs, reimagined during the collectivist period as the wealthy’s responsibility to pay for welfare-state benefits to care for the poor
• Nomenklatura the process of elite recruitment in communist systems, whereby leaders at higher levels of the power hierarchy provide the names of those they would like to see promoted from the lower levels
• Oligarchs a small number of individuals controlling a massive amount of wealth and potentially controlling political processes through their wealth, particularly regarding Russia
• One-child policy a policy in China from 1979 through 2016 that attempted to control the growth of China’s population by limiting the number of children a family could have to one (with exceptions)
• Operation Ajax a covert operation by the United States in 1956 that discredited the National Front and restored support for the Shah’s rule
• Opportunidades welfare payments made to targeted impoverished groups, such as poor single mothers, providing cash payment in exchange for the family or individual meeting certain goals, such as educational attainment, set by the government
• Outputs in political systems theory, the policy decisions made by the state in response to the inputs
• Parastatals large state-owned enterprises that operate as independent businesses
• Parliament in Britain, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, together comprising the national legislature
• Parliamentary sovereignty the British constitutional principle that acts of Parliament are considered supreme in law; courts do not possess the power of judicial review to overturn these acts
• Party Congress a decision-making gathering of party officials held at each level of Chinese government to select officials for higher levels
• Party of power a political party without a defining ideology that makes policies with the primary goal of remaining in power
• Party state a system in which the internal workings of a single political party shape the governance of the state itself
• Patriotism a sense of pride in the state
• PEMEX Mexico’s state-owned national oil exploration and refining company
• People’s Liberation Army (PLA) China’s national military; it also wields considerable political influence as senior PLA members serve concurrently in the Politburo
• Perestroika Mikhail Gorbachev’s economic reforms allowing a limited role for markets, rather than the state, to determine what would be produced
• Personality cult the use of media, propaganda, spectacles, social controls, and other mechanisms by the state to promote an idealized and heroic image of the country’s leader
• Personal rule a type of authoritarian regime centered upon a single personality as the leader, who is empowered to shape policy and the regime to his or her own preferences
• Plaid Cymru a regional minority party concentrated in Wales
• Plebiscite a direct vote by members of the public on a policy matter; unlike a referendum, the result of a plebiscite is not binding on the government
• Politburo in communist parties, the senior leadership group that also acts as the executive branch in most cases
• Political attitude an individual’s perspective on the acceptable level and pace of political change
• Political-economic system a system of distribution of goods and services that addresses what will be produced, how it will be produced, and who will consume it
• Political economy the study of production and trade as they relate to government policymaking and law
• Political ideology beliefs about what the fundamental goals of politics and public policy should be
• Politicos PRI officials who led bureaucratic agencies as a result of their political connections rather than their technical expertise
• Porfiriato the period of rule under Porfirio Diaz (1876–1911), characterized by authoritarianism, stability, and economic reforms resulting in rising inequality
• Power the ability to influence others to take actions they would not otherwise take
• Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) a parastatal corporation responsible for providing electricity to Nigeria that was known for its corruption and inefficiency until it was privatized in 2013
• Prebendalism the tendency in Nigerian bureaucratic agencies for corrupt individual bureaucrats to use their official position to enrich themselves; for example, by securing bribes when performing their official functions
• Prime Minister in a parliamentary system, the chief executive chosen by the legislature as the leader of the legislature’s majority party
• Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) a televised event once a week where the prime minister responds to questions from the opposition leader and other MPs
• Proletariat in Marxism, the working-class laborers who are exploited by capitalism for the benefit of the bourgeoisie
• Property ownership rights of economic resources such as land, natural resources, and capital
• Protectionism enacting policies to attempt to restrict international trade and protect domestic jobs and manufacturing operations through tariffs, quotas, or other regulations
• Public goods goods or services that are not excludable, would not be provided by the market, and thus must be provided by states through taxation and government spending
• Public schools in Britain, elite private secondary schools where students are trained for a future in public service
• Purges Joseph Stalin’s program of eliminating potential opposition figures within the Communist Party through arrest or murder
• Qajar Dynasty Turkish conquerors who ruled Persia from 1794 through 1925
• Qom a city south of Tehran where most of Iran’s major seminaries and leading clerics are located
• Quangos acronym for “quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations,” semi-independent agencies with regulatory power over a particular policy area or industry
• Radical a political attitude that seeks to make rapid changes, potentially including regime change and the abolition of existing political institutions to create new ones
• Recession a decline in real GDP for a period of time, usually resulting in higher unemployment rates
• Reform changes made to regimes through the existing political system and political institutions, without rapid trauma or revolutionary change
• Regulation legal restrictions on otherwise private activity imposed by the government
• Remittances payments sent to Mexico from workers who are earning wages abroad, mostly from the United States
• Resurgence Party a political party created by the Shah of Iran in 1975 to serve as the dominant party in a one-party state
• Right an economic ideology and policies that seek to reduce the role of the state and increase the freedom of individuals to use their property and pursue market incentives as they see fit
• Scottish National Party (SNP) a regional minority party concentrated in Scotland
• “Scramble for Africa” the rapid colonization of Africa by European powers (1860–1910), during which time Nigeria was colonized by Great Britain
• Shadow cabinet leaders of the opposition party who would have become the new prime minister and cabinet if their party won an electoral majority
• Shah the ruling monarch of Iran prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1979
• Shock therapy after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin’s program of rapid conversion from a command economy to a market economy
• Siloviki in Russia, people who have worked in the security services, such as the military or police forces
• Sinn Fein a regional minority party, concentrated in Northern Ireland, that advocates Irish independence and rejects the authority of the British Parliament
• Slavophile a description of Russians who oppose the westernization of their culture and prefer to protect and preserve Russian traditions
• Social democracy a political ideology that seeks to balance the values of liberty and equality by integrating market economic principles while using the state to provide some economic security
• Social expenditures state spending on benefit programs to provide support in adverse circumstances
• Sovereign possessing supreme, autonomous power
• Speaker of the House in Britain, a member of Parliament chosen to preside over proceedings and maintain order in the House of Commons
• Special Economic Zones (SEZs) geographic areas in China where manufacturers can make and export goods at lower tax rates than are permitted elsewhere in the country
• Stateless nations groups of people sharing a desire for sovereign self-rule or greater political autonomy but who are not currently integrated into or represented in an existing state
• Statism a belief that the state should take a central role in protecting and providing for the society
• Strong states states that are deemed legitimate by their citizens and possess the capacity to execute their policies and deliver political goods to their citizens
• Subsidy a sum of money paid by the government to a private institution to produce a good or service for the purpose of increasing its supply or keeping its price low
• Subsistence agriculture self-sufficiency in farming; farmers seek to grow enough food for their family or community rather than sell it for profit in a market
• Sunnis a sect of Islam that believes the chosen caliphate constitutes the rightful leaders and guardians of the Islamic faith; a majority of Muslims globally but an unrecognized minority in Iran
• Supreme Court of the Russian Federation one of the two high courts in Russia that are empowered as the highest courts of appeals
• Supreme Court of the United Kingdom the highest appellate court, established to replace the Law Lords and demonstrate the separation and independent power of the judiciary
• Supreme People’s Court China’s highest court of appeals; it lacks any power of judicial review of the government’s policies.
• Surplus value in Marxism, the additional value added to raw materials when they are turned into manufactured goods by the efforts of the workers
• Systems theory a holistic view of a political system that seeks to explain how public policy decisions are demanded, made, implemented, and altered
• Taiwan also called the Republic of China, an island to which KMT nationalists fled after losing the Chinese Civil War; ruled independently but still claimed by the People’s Republic of China
• Tariff a tax on imported products
• Taxation a financial charge imposed by the government to pay for public goods, social expenditures, and other priorities of the state
• Technicos In Mexico, PRI officials who were placed in positions in bureaucratic agencies because of their education and technical expertise
• “Tehran Spring” a term referring to the reduced restrictions in Iran on freedom of speech and the press during the government of President Khatami (1997–2005)
• Televisa Mexico’s most watched television network and largest media conglomerate; it was accused of covering then-candidate Enrique Peña Nieto favorably during the 2012 election cycle in an attempt to help the PRI win power again
• Telmex formerly a state-owned telephone monopoly, privatized in 1990, and still Mexico’s largest provider of telephone services
• Thatcherism an economic policy agenda that emphasized neoliberal reforms such as privatization of state-owned enterprises, reductions in welfare-state spending, and deregulation of business
• Tiananmen Square Massacre a crackdown by the Chinese military against pro-democracy protesters in 1989 in which thousands of the protesters were killed
• Tibetans an ethnic minority group in China, concentrated in the Tibet region, frequently a concern to China as a potential separatist movement
• Tlateloco Plaza Massacre a crackdown against anti-government protesters in 1968 that resulted in the deaths of up to 300 demonstrators and the arrest of thousands more
• Totalitarian regime a political system that attempts to control nearly all aspects of the lives of its citizens and subjects
• Trade importation and exportation of goods and services across the boundaries of countries
• Tramites minor regulations added to law codes by bureaucratic agencies so as to ensure competence in the execution of the law by bureaucratic officials; they have often been criticized as cumbersome and unnecessary
• Tudeh Party a left-wing communist party opposed to the rule of the Shah that was banned after 1956
• Twelver Shi’ism a sect of Islam whose adherents believe that the twelfth descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, who disappeared mysteriously, will return to establish a perfect world
• “Two Chinas” a reference to the claims of both the communist government in mainland China and the nationalist government in Taiwan to be the legitimate rulers of China; the term is increasingly used to describe the major disparity in economic development between China’s cities and rural areas
• Uighurs an ethnic minority group in China, predominantly Muslim and concentrated in the Xinjiang region, that is frequently a concern to China as a potential separatist movement
• U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) a national British minority party that advocates withdrawing from the EU and other institutions that limit Britain’s national sovereignty
• “War on drugs” in Mexico, military campaigns against violent drug cartels that have been ongoing since 2006
• Weak states states that operate with limited legitimacy or capacity and are thus less able than strong states to exercise sovereign control over their internal affairs
• West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) a monetary union of six West African states seeking to create a unified central bank and transnational currency called the eco
• Westernizer a Russian who sees adopting Western culture and practices as the best path toward modernization and development for Russia
• White Revolution a program of reforms by the Shah meant to undermine support for leftist and communist parties; it provided benefits to peasants and encouraged westernization in certain areas of Iranian culture
• Yo Soy #132 a protest movement during the 2012 election cycle that accused media company Televisa of using its networks to help PRI candidates get elected
• Zoroastrianism the official religion of ancient Persia; now a protected minority religion in modern Iran