View all terms
apparatchiks
(en)
members of a communist party apparat (apparatus)
caging effect
(en)
when some human groups are forced into new, more extensive and elaborate forms of social organisation (e.g., serfdom, slavery, tribute payments) due to a lack of an escape route as well as active coercion from the ruling class
comprador
(en)
person who acts as an agent for foreign organizations engaged in investment, trade, or economic or political exploitation; originally applied only to East Asia but now used in a Marxist sense to refer to other regions; from the Portuguese word for buyer
eschatology
(en)
the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind
establishmentarian
(en)
of, relating to, or favoring the (present) social or political establishment
garrison states
(en)
a state organized to serve primarily its own need for military security; also : a state maintained by military power
jacaranda
(en)
a type of flowering plant native to tropical and subtropical regions
Kemalist
(en)
of the founding ideology of the Republic of Turkey, implemented by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and defined by sweeping political, social, cultural and religious reforms designed to separate the new Turkish state from its Ottoman predecessor and embrace a Westernized way of living
Marxian
(en)
pertaining to Karl Marx and ideas he explicitly explored in his writings; differs from Marxist in that the latter includes ideas developed by others in the same vein of thought
Ming China
(en)
China under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty; characterised by orderly government and social stability
Mughals
(en)
the Mughal Empire, in the Indian subcontinent, established and ruled by a Muslim Turkic dynasty of Chagatai Turco-Mongol origin from Central Asia; though ethnically Turco-Mongol, Persianate in terms of culture; roughly 1526 and in decline until 1858 (when British rule began)
a mainstream approach to economics focusing on the determination of goods, outputs, and income distributions in markets through supply and demand; contrast with heterodox economics
Neolithic
(en)
(or Agricultural Revolution) the wide-scale transition of many human cultures from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, making possible an increasingly larger population; began around 10,000 BC
Neue Ostpolitik
(de)
"new eastern policy": the normalization of relations between West Germany and East Germany (and Eastern Europe) starting in 1969
nomenklatura
(en)
a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in the bureaucracy running all spheres of those countries' activity
obscurantist
(en)
deliberately preventing the facts or full details of something from becoming known
perestroika
(en)
a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s, associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost ("openness") policy reform
porto franco
(en)
(Italian or Portuguese for "free port") a port or an area of a port in which imported goods can be held or processed free of customs duties before reexport.
Pyrrhic victory
(en)
a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat
ratchet effect
(en)
(labor markets) when workers subject to performance pay choose to restrict their output, because they rationally anticipate that firms will respond to higher output levels by raising output requirements or cutting pay
Safavis
(en)
the Safavid dynasty: one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran, often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history (1501–1736)
sclerosis
(en)
a hardening of tissue and other anatomical features / becoming rigid and unresponsive; losing the ability to adapt
subproletarians
(en)
not a commonly-used term; most likely refering to households considered "lesser" than proletarian households in terms of socieconomic power
szlachta
(en)
a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland; gained considerable institutional privileges between 1333 and 1370 during the reign of King Casimir III the Great
Thermidorian
(en)
a French political group active during the French Revolution, which launched a coup d'état against the leaders of the Jacobin Club in 1794