A fully updated and revised edition of this best-selling dictionary of political terms. Containing more than 1,700 entries including new material on topics such as NGOs, butterfly ballots, decentralisation, ethnic cleansing, and direct action, this dictionary has been written by a leadingteam of political scientists and covers political thinkers, institutions, and concepts. The dictionary has international coverage and will prove invaluable to students and academics studying politics and related disciplines, as well as professionals and the general reader.Appendices list the political leaders of a range of countries and international institutions.
The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang illuminates a rich and colorful segment of our language. Readers will find informative entries on slang terms such as "Beltway bandit" and "boondoggle," "angry white male" and "leg treasurer," "juice bill" and "Joe Citizen," "banana superpower"and "the Big Fix." We find not only the meaning and history of familiar terms such as "gerrymander," but also of lesser-known terms such as "cracking" (splitting a bloc of like-minded voters by redistricting) and "fair-fight district" (which refers to areas redistricted to favor no political party). Each entry includes the definition of the word, its historical background, and illuminating citations, some going back more than 200 years. Selected entries will have extended encyclopedic notes. The book also features sidebar essays on topics such as political words in Blogistan; a short historyof "big cheese"; all about chads and the 2000 election; the suffix "-gate" and all the related Watergate terms; and the naming of legislation. Political junkies, policy wonks, journalists, and word lovers will find this book addictive reading as well as a reliable guide to one of the more colorfulcorners of American English.