POLITICAL DICTIONARY

 D

Decentralization: the breaking up of central authority, and the distribution of it over a broader field, such as local authorities.

Demagoguism: try to win political support by playing to people's fears and prejudices. Trying to build up hatred for certain groups.  A demagogue is a political leader who tries to win support by appealing to people’s emotions rather than by using rational arguments e.g. Adolf Hitler, who stirred up the masses by telling them the Jews were responsible for German ills, was a demagogue.

Democracy:  government by the people; the rule of the majority. There is no precise definition of democracy on which all could agree. Even communist countries tend to call themselves democratic, and the mere fact that a government is elected by a majority of the popular vote does not of itself guarantee a democracy. A broad definition might include the following points (based on Thomas R. Dye and L. Harmon Ziegler's book The Irony of Democracy): Participation by the mass of people in the decisions that shape their lives; government by majority rule, with recognition of the rights of minorities; freedom of speech, press, and assembly; freedom to form opposition political parties and to run for office; commitment to individual dignity and to equal opportunities for people to develop their full potential.

Despotism:  absolute role.

Destabilize:  to make unstable, or insecure. Often used in a political sense about a government or a nation, especially when the destabilization is deliberately created by dissidents or rebels within a country, or by agents of a foreign power that want to disrupt or overthrow a government. The U.S, like many governments, has done its share of destabilizing, notably in Chile in the early 1970s, when it engineered the fall of the Marxist government there.

Détente: the easing of strained relations between states. In recent history the term is applied to relations between the Soviet Union and the U.S. in the 1970s, that led to increased trade and arms control agreements. Détente ended with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Deterrence: a defense policy in which a country ensures that it has sufficient military power to deter a potential enemy from making an attack. Deterrence is fundamental to U.S. policy, and underlies all the arguments about the need to keep the military strong. The greatest deterrents are considered to be nuclear weapons. Although they have existed since 1945, they have never been used since the end of World War II. The mere possession of nuclear weapons is sufficient to deter an enemy, because, unless a country's entire nuclear arsenal could be wiped out by a first strike, the destruction caused by the inevitable retaliation would be too great a price to pay. The doctrine of deterrence through nuclear weapons is a paradox: weapons of mass destruction have kept the peace.  

Devaluation: reduction in the value of a nation's currency in relation to other currencies. Devaluation usually takes place because of an emergency, such as a balance of payments deficit in which the value of a country's imports is far greater than the value of its exports. Devaluation has the effect of boosting exports (because they are cheaper in terms of foreign currencies) and reducing imports (because they are more expensive in terms of foreign currencies).

Devolution: the redistribution or delegation of political power away from a centralized body to a lower, often regional, authority.

Dialectic: originally meant the art of argument, a method of logical inquiry that proceeded by question and answer. The idea of dialectic was developed by the nineteenth century German idealist philosopher Hegel into a way of understanding all natural and historical processes: everything conformed to a dialectical process of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. One thing produces from within itself its own opposite or negation, and from the conflict between the two emerges a synthesis. Hegel's idea of dialectic was adapted by Karl Marx to form dialectical materialism, the foundation of Marxist doctrine.

Dialectical Materialism: the central theory of Marxism, which Karl Marx adopted from the idealist philosophy of Hegel. Marx applied Hegel's theory of dialectic to political and economic history. Capitalism (thesis), produced its opposite socialism (antithesis) from within itself, by means of the proletariat, out of which eventually emerged a communist society (synthesis). Marx believed this to be an inexorable law of history.

Dictatorship:  a system of government in which power is concentrated in the hands of one person, the dictator. Dictatorships are rarely benevolent and often have scant regard for human rights. The classic dictatorships in the twentieth century were those of Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) in Germany, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) in Italy, and Josef Stalin (1879-1953) in the Soviet Union.

Dictatorship of the Proletariat: a Marxist concept that was in fact first formulated before Karl Marx (1818-83), by a Frenchman, Auguste Blanqui (1805-81). It refers to an interim period immediately after the proletariat (the working class) has triumphed over the bourgeoisie (capitalists). The rule of the proletariat then gives way to the classless, or communist society.

Diehard:  The term can be referred to people or group of people in the form of association or organization who are strongly oppose to change and new ideas even when they are outmoded. Today there are many diehard communists in Russia, or in the U.S. there are diehards who still believe in racial segregation.

Diplomacy:  is the management of relations between nations.

Direct democracy: democracy in which the people as a whole make direct decisions, rather than have those decisions made for them by elected representatives. A referendum is a form of direct democracy, as is the practice of recall, by which an elected official may be voted out of office between elections if enough people sign a petition to remove him and then win the subsequent vote. Ross Perot introduced a novel version of direct democracy into the American political scene, when he ran as independent candidate for president in 1992. Perot proposed that some national decisions could be arrived at directly by the people through the use of electronic "town meetings." The idea arose because of widespread public dissatisfaction with the performance of Congress, which in the eyes of many was out of touch with the country as a whole.

Disarmament: reduction of armaments. Attempts have been made to reduce arms ever since the end of World War I. A disarmament conference was held in Geneva from 1932-34, but no agreement was reached. After World War II, the United Nations established committees on disarmament and formed a Disarmament Commission in 1952. Talks were held from 1955 to 1957 on banning nuclear weapons. From the 1960s, there was some limited success, including the nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (1963) and the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (1968). In the 1970s, because of the policy of détente between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, more treaties were signed, limiting the increase of nuclear weapons. Further treaties in 1987, 1991, and 1993, reduced the superpowers' stock of nuclear weapons. However, they did nothing to alleviate the continuing danger of nuclear proliferation. As far as conventional armaments are concerned, the idea of disarmament seems no more than a visionary dream. Between 1988 and 1990 the arms trade was the world's biggest industry. Many developing countries, among them Brazil, India, Egypt and both Koreas, were by 1990 among the world's top arms producers and exporters. In the Third World, the concept of arms control or disarmament simply does not exist.

Dissident:  one who dissents, or disagrees with his/her government or organization. In political speech, the term refers to a person who protests injustices or abuses perpetrated by the government of his country. Dissidents are common in totalitarian or communist countries. Many Chinese dissidents are imprisoned or persecuted for advocating democracy, as were Russian dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union under communism. Some dissidents such as Lech Walesa of Poland, and Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic eventually win their battles against the state and, in these two cases, become presidents of their countries.

Divide and Rule:  the practice of keeping power by making sure that enemies are always kept divided and therefore too weak to mount an effective challenge. The Roman Empire perfected the strategy of divide and rule, and the British Empire employed the same tactic.

Divine Right:  the term usually refers to the divine right of kings, a medieval belief that the king was appointed by God to rule, and this divine right was passed on by hereditary alone. The belief had virtually died out by the end of the nineteenth century, except among a few diehard groups.

Doctrine:  a set of principles or beliefs or something taught as the principles or creed of a religion or political party. Doctrine also refers to certain foreign policies, such as the Monroe Doctrine or the Carter Doctrine.

Dogma:  a doctrine or belief, as laid down by an authority, such as a church. Also means an arrogant assertion of an opinion. When someone states his fixed beliefs and opinions and will not evaluate them objectively or listen to any counter-argument, he is speaking dogma.

Domino Theory: an idea current during the Cold War that justified U.S. support of South Vietnam against invasion by communist North Vietnam. The theory was that if one Southeast Asian state went communist, others, such as Laos and Cambodia, would follow, giving the communists much greater influence. Also, it can be refer to describe the spread of Islamic fundamentalism.

Draconian Law:  Severe or cruel laws. The phrase refers to Draco, a ruler of ancient Greece in the 7th century B.C., who imposed a severe code of laws on the city of Athens in 621. In political speech today, for example, a government that is facing social unrest or rebellion might take Draconian measures to restore order.

Dynasty:  a succession of political rulers who belong to the same family such as Pahlavi dynasty in Iran. Dynasties are less common now than they used to be in the days when hereditary monarchs held sway, but in some countries, power is still passed on by a ruler to another member of his family. Sometimes even in a democracy powerful political families seem almost to attain the status of a dynasty. Examples include the Kennedys in America, the Bhuttos in Pakistan, and the relatives and descendants of Mahatma Gandhi in India.

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