Vocabulary in Politics

[Vanilluxe]

I talked to a friend of mines about current events of Greece and he was like "What's austerity?!" He also was confused on a whole range of other phrases and words regarding European politics.

I noticed every time the media talks about budget cuts in Europe they use austerity while in American politics it is just plain ole budget cuts and "balancing the budget". There are also other terms that we use differently here in America than Europe. Is there other vocabs in politics people should learn about? And what do you think about the differences?

 

[Bryan]

Good questions - some of the key differences for Europe is to learn the structures of their governments bodies. For example, below is the wiki intro on the UK Parliament. I'm not sure a good website that has what you're looking for in a short format.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the UK Parliament or the British Parliament, is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories.[3] It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. Its head is the Sovereign of the United Kingdom (currently Queen Elizabeth II) and its seat is the Palace of Westminster in Westminster, London.

The parliament is bicameral, consisting of an upper house (the House of Lords) and a lower house (the House of Commons).[4] The Sovereign forms the third component of the legislature (the Queen-in-Parliament).[5][6] The House of Lords includes two different types of members: the Lords Spiritual (the senior bishops of the Church of England) and the Lords Temporal (members of the Peerage) whose members are not elected by the population at large, but are appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister.[7] Prior to the opening of the Supreme Court in October 2009, the House of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law Lords.

 

[ClydeCoulter]

I think the words and phrases used to label policies and occurrences of things are meant to obscure their actual meaning or to convey a negative or positive image on peoples minds, as they please.

Extreme cases are the naming of bills out of congress, such as the "Patriot Act".

But yes, a Glossary of mind bending terms used in politics would be helpful.

 

[Vanilluxe]

I think the words and phrases used to label policies and occurrences of things are meant to obscure their actual meaning or to convey a negative or positive image on peoples minds, as they please.

Extreme cases are the naming of bills out of congress, such as the "Patriot Act".

But yes, a Glossary of mind bending terms used in politics would be helpful.

Well if Americans learn these words then they can understand what we're telling them. Instead we're bombarded with dumbed down slogans and sound bites. Hardly policies at all.