Glossary — P

Glossary terms beginning with P.

Phumphaek: Six areas into which Cambodia was divided in 1973.
piaster: See Egyptian pound.
pir: Successor to the founder of a Sufi (q.v.) order or of a local subdivision of an order; in the Sufi tradition, a religious man considered to have mystic powers.
plebiscite: A device of direct democracy whereby the electorate can pronounce, usually for or against, some measure put before it by a government. Also known as a referendum. A Chilean president may convoke a plebiscite, under Article 117, if the president totally rejects an amendment project approved by Congress, but the latter insists on the totality of the proposed law by three-fourths of the members in office in each Chamber. Articles 118 through 119 further specify the conditions under which a plebiscite may be held.
PLN: Partido Liberal Nacional (National Liberal Party). Generally right-of- center. Part of pro-government coalition, UNADE (q.v.).
PNP: Partido Nacionalista Popular (Popular Nationalist Party). Minor party that contested 1984 elections, but lost legal status by failing to receive 3 percent of total vote.
polders: Areas of low-lying land reclaimed from a sea, lake, or river by the protection of dikes. In Chad polders have been created along the southeastern shores of Lake Chad and are used for the production of wheat and corn.
Polexco: Political Executive Committee. The politburo of the PCR (q.v.), the party’s primary policy-making body. In 1988 there were nineteen members, most of whom held other important party and government positions.
POLISARIO: Frente Popular por la Liberación de Saguia el Hamra y Río de Oro (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro). Western Sahara independence movement.
political culture: The orientation of the citizens of a nation toward politics, and their perceptions of political legitimacy and the traditions of political practice.; Source: Library of Congress
Polonize, Polonization: The process of changing the national identity of non-Poles to one culturally similar to that of the Poles.; Source: Library of Congress
polygynous: having more than one wife at the same time; polygynous marriages are allowed by tradition in many African societies.
popular sectors: A term similar to popular culture, referring to the masses of working-class, underemployed, and unemployed citizens.
positivism: The theory that genuine knowledge is acquired by science and that metaphysical speculation has no validity. Positivism, based largely on the ideas of the French philosopher Auguste Comte, was adopted by many Latin American intellectuals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chilean positivists promoted secular education, free inquiry, the scientific method, and social reform.
PP: Partido Panameñista (Panameñista Party). Small break-away faction of Panameñistas. Part of pro-government coalition, UNADE (q.v.), in 1984 elections, but lost legal status by failing to win 3 percent of total vote.
PPA: Partido Panameñista Auténtico (Authentic Panameñista Party). Nation’s leading opposition party. Strongly nationalist and populist. Part of opposition coalition, ADO (q.v.). Led by veteran politician Arnulfo Arias Madrid.
PPP: Partido Panameño del Pueblo (Panamanian People’s Party). Far left communist party.
PR: Partido Republicano (Republican Party). Right-of-center party. Part of pro-government coalition, UNADE (q.v.).
praetorian: Praetorianism is a form of militarism in which the armed forces act as a corporate body to maintain control over government, actively intervening in politics to select or change the government. The ""ruler-type"" praetorian army rejects the existing social order for one based on modernization, industrialization, and rapid economic growth, as the Peruvian Army (Ejército Peruano--EP) did following its assumption of power in 1968. Political scientist Samuel Huntington describes a praetorian society as one in which social forces confront each other directly, with no institutions accepted as legitimate mediaries and, more importantly, no agreement existing among the groups as to an authoritative means for conflict resolution.
Prague Spring: Period of attempts to institute political and economic reforms in Czechoslovakia, led by communist party First Secretary Alexander Dubcek, in 1968. The Soviet Union and four Warsaw Pact (q.v.) allies responded by invading Czechoslovakia and forcing Dubcek out of power.
PRD: Partido Revolucionario Democr*atico (Democratic Revolutionary Party). Official government party founded by Torrijos. Part of pro- government coalition, UNADE (q.v.).
pribumi: Literally, an indigene, or native. In the colonial era, the great majority of the population of the archipelago came to regard themselves as indigenous, in contrast to the nonindigenous Dutch and Chinese (and, to a degree, Arab) communities. After independence the distinction persisted, expressed as a dichotomy between elements that were pribumi and those that were not. The distinction has had significant implications for economic development policy.
Primary exports: Peru’s traditional primary goods exports, as opposed to manufactured exports, included cotton, sugar, copper, silver, lead, zinc, and oil.
primary goods or products: Raw materials, such as ores, logs, and agricultural products, or other products with a high content of natural resources.; Source: Library of Congress
primary sector: Agriculture, extractive activities, and fishing.; Source: Library of Congress
Procuracy: The agency responsible for the investigation and prosecution of lawbreakers. The Procuracy was subject to the authority of the CPSU (q.v.) and had limited purview over political matters. In Moldova the Procuracy (and its successor organization, the General Prosecution Office) was the subject of substantial controversy in discussions on constitutional reform in the early 1990s.
Procuratura: Office of the prosecutor general, established in 1952, it operates the court system, decides jurisdictional questions, compiles crime statistics, and oversees the central criminology institute and forensic science laboratory.
Produced Nation Income (PNI): A measure of an economy’s material production that excludes income generated by the service sector and depreciation on capital equipment. It is used to measure controlled or communist economics where accounting procedures may ignore the service sector as ""unproductive.""
production brigade: Formerly the intermediate administrative level in the people’s commune system, the organizational structure of the collective sector in agriculture. The highest level was the commune; the lowest, the production team. Most brigades were transformed into townships or villages in the period from 1982 to 1985. (See also people’s commune, production team, townships, villages.)
production team: Formerly the basic accounting and farm production unit in the people’s commune system. Production teams were largely disbanded during the agricultural reforms of 1982-85. In the administrative hierarchy, the team was the lowest level, the next higher levels being the production brigade and people’s commune. Typically the team owned most of the land and was responsible for income distribution. Since 1984 most teams have been replaced by villages. (See also people’s commune, production brigade, village.)
Protocol of Rio de janeiro (Rio Protocol): An agreement concluded in Rio de Janeiro on January 29, 1942, between Peru and Ecuador with the participation of the mediatory nations of Argentina, Brazil, and the United States. It was ratified by the congresses of both Peru and Ecuador on February 26, 1942, and it established the border between the two countries as internationally recognized today. Following the discovery of the Río Cenepa between the Zamora and Santiago rivers in the Cordillera del Cóndor in 1951, Ecuador disputed the treaty demarcation, which then stopped, leaving a stretch of the border uncharted. Ecuador repudiated the treaty in 1960, but the guarantor powers ruled this repudiation invalid.
pueblos jóvenes: See barriadas.
pukpang chongch'aek: Also seen as Nordpolitik, or northern policy. Reconciling traditional ties with the West with new opportunities in the east; establishing self-reliant global posture; expanding and diversifying trade relations on global scale to cope with trade protectionism from the United States; improving relations with P’yongyang.
pulperÃa: Originally, a company store; later, a state-subsidized merchandise store selling goods at stable prices to miners and other labor groups.; Source: Library of Congress
Punjab: State in India (and a province in adjacent Pakistan). Term the Punjab usually refers to either the pre-1947 state of British India or the geographic region centered on the five major rivers, whence its name, panch ab, meaning five waters, or rivers.
putonghua: The common spoken language; also called guoyu (national language). The official spoken language of China, used in its various forms by more than 70 percent of the population. The People’s Republic government started promoting putonghua in 1956 for use in schools, the cultural arena, and daily life as a means of bringing about the standardization of the language used by the Han (q.v.) nationality. Putonghua is based on the northern dialect, and uses Beijing pronunciations as its standard.