Glossary

Definitions of terms used throughout CountryReports.

This glossary contains 1,144 terms used throughout CountryReports — political, economic, cultural, historical, and geographic terminology referenced in country profiles and articles. Terms are drawn from authoritative sources including the Library of Congress.

""Moldavian"" (moldavskiy in Russian): Term used by the Soviet government to describe the language and nationality of the ethnic Romanians (q.v.) in Bessarabia (q.v.). Joseph V. Stalin claimed that their language and nationality were different and distinct from the language and nationality of the ethnic Romanians in Romania as a justification for creating the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1940. In actuality, the ""Moldavian"" language is a dialect of Romanian. Under the Soviet regime, ""Moldavia"" was used as the short form for the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.; Source: Library of Congress
Andean Group: An economic group, the Andean Common Market, created in 1969 by Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela as a subregional market to improve its members’ bargaining power within the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA) and to encourage increased trade and more rapid development. LAFTA, which dated from 1960, was replaced in 1980 by the Latin American Integration Association (Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración--ALADI), which advocated a regional tariff preference for goods originating in member states. Chile left the Andean Group in 1976. The threat that Peru might withdraw from the pact had receded by August 1992.; Source: Library of Congress
Andean Pact: An economic group, the Andean Common Market, created in 1969 by Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru as a subregional market to improve its members’ bargaining power within the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA) and to encourage increased trade and more rapid development. LAFTA, which dated from 1960, was replaced in 1980 by the Latin American Integration Association (Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración--ALADI), which advocated a regional tariff preference for goods originating in member states. Chile left the Pact in 1976. The threat that Peru might withdraw from the Pact had receded by August 1992.
apartheid: ""Separateness,"" (Afrikaans, Dutch); policy implemented by National Party government (1948-94) to maintain separate development of government-demarcated racial groups; also referred to as ""separate development,"" and later ""multinational development""; abolished by Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1993.
Arab Socialist Union: ASU. The mass organization created in 1971 to provide a framework for popular participation and representation within the political system. Reorganized in 1975 to include the local-level Basic Popular Congresses (BPCs) and the intermediates-level Municipal Popular Congresses, (MPCs) both of which send delegated to the national General People’s Congress (GPC--q.v.); organization was disbanded in January 1976. Not to be confused with the Egyptian political organization of the same name.
Asafo: Traditional Akan men’s association and originally fighting companies.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): Founded in 1967 for the purpose of promoting regional stability, economic development, and cultural exchange. ASEAN’s membership includes Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. India is a ""dialogue partner"" along with Austria, Canada, China, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Russia, and the United States.
audiencia: Literally audience or court; a subdivision of a viceroyalty under Spanish colonial administration. As well as being the name of the administrative unit, the audiencia, composed of five men, was the highest governmental authority in the territory. During most of the colonial period, the president of the audiencia held the additional titles of governor and captain general; hence the alternative name for the audiencia was captaincy general. Although technically subordinate to the viceroyalty, the governor, or captain general, was appointed by the Spanish monarch and was responsible only to him or her. In practice, the governor frequently ignored orders from Spain and acted independently. For this reason, the Audiencia of Guatemala was frequently referred to in colonial times as the Kingdom of Guatemala.
August coup d'état: On August 19, 1991, high-ranking officials of the CPSU (q.v.) and the government of the Soviet Union (q.v.) announced that they had formed the State Committee for the State of Emergency and had removed Mikhail S. Gorbachev as the head of state. Leaders of most of the Soviet republics and many foreign leaders denounced the coup. Some key military commanders refused to deploy their forces in support of the coup leaders, and by August 22 the coup had collapsed. As a consequence of the failed coup, the CPSU and the Soviet central government were severely discredited, Gorbachev resigned, ten of the fifteen Soviet republics declared or reaffirmed their independence (including Belarus and Moldova), and the Congress of People’s Deputies (q.v.) dissolved the Soviet Union and itself after transferring state power to a transitional government.; Source: Library of Congress
autonomous entities (entes autónomos): Autonomous government agencies or state enterprises performing various industrial, commercial, or social services. The constitution stipulated that these bodies were to have a degree of autonomy or decentralization as established by laws enacted with the approval of an absolute majority of the full membership of each chamber of the General Assembly. They were administered by five- to seven-member boards of directors or directors general. Members were either elected by the Senate or appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate. The degree of autonomy or decentralization varied. For example, the constitution stipulated that postal, customs, port authority, and public health services were not to be fully decentralized, but rather granted only as much autonomy as was compatible with control by the executive.
Autonomous Region: Governorates of As Sulaymaniyah, Dahuk, and Irbil, the Kurdish majority area. In this region--popularly known as Kurdistan--Kurdish has status of official language, and residents enjoy limited autonomy from central government.
aymag: Provincial-level or second-level unit of administration in Mongolia since 1921. Aymags are divided into somon (q.v.). Traditionally, an aymag was a tribe.
Baathist: a member of the Baath (Arab Socialist Resurrection Party), a pan-Arab party established in Damascus in the 1940s by Michel Aflaq and Salah ad Din al Bitar.
balance of payments: An annual statistical summary of the monetary value of all economic transactions between one country and the rest of the world, including goods, services, income on investments, and other financial matters, such as credits or loans.
balboa (B): Panama’s monetary unit, in practice consisting only of coins. Official value is B1 equals US$1. United States currency used for paper money.
Bangla: Official language of Bangladesh; often referred to as Bengali before 1971. An Indo-European language.; Source: Library of Congress
Bantu: Literally, ""human beings,"" in more than 300 Bantu languages of equatorial and southern Africa. Bantu languages are classified within the central branch of the Niger-Congo language family; characterized by a system of noun classes marked by prefixes, so that each dependent word in a sentence carries a prefix of the same class. Outsiders often simplify by omitting prefix; for example, the amaZulu (people) are known as the Zulu; their language, isiZulu, is also referred to as Zulu. Speakers of seSotho, the BaSotho, are often referred to simply as Sotho peoples. Four major subgroups of Bantu languages--Nguni, Sotho, Tsonga-Shangaan, and Venda--are widely represented in South Africa. They include nine of South Africa’s official languages--isiXhosa, isiZulu, isiNdebele, sePedi, seSotho, seTswana, siSwati, tshiVenda (also luVenda), and xiTsonga. During the apartheid era, the term Bantu was often used in government regulations, official statements, and sometimes in conversation to designate people of black African descent. Because this group was particularly disadvantaged by apartheid, the term Bantu assumed pejorative connotations in many apartheid-era contexts.
Bantustan: An area reserved for an officially designated Bantu-speaking ethnic group during the apartheid era; a term generally supplanted by ""homeland,"" national state, or self-governing state during the 1970s and 1980s.
baraka: Quality of blessedness or grace found characteristically in marabouts (q.v.) and other divinely favored persons. Also, charisma that endows the blessed with a special capacity to rule.
barefoot doctor: Especially during the Cultural Revolution (q.v.), a paramedical worker possessing minimal formal training who provided part-time medical service, primarily in rural areas. Promoted basic hygiene, preventive health care, and family planning and treated common illnesses. Acted as a primary health-care provider at the grass-roots level.
Barisan Sosialis: The Socialist Front, a left-wing political party that was the primary challenger to the People’s Action Party (q.v.) in the 1960s and early 1970s.
barrels per day (bpd): Production of crude oil and petroleum products is frequently measured in barrels per day. A barrel is a volume measure of forty- two United States gallons. Conversion of barrels to metric tons depends on the density of the special product. About 7.3 barrels of average crude oil weigh one metric ton. Heavy products would be about seven barrels per metric ton. Light products, such as gasoline and kerosene, would average eight barrels per metric ton.; Source: Library of Congress
Belizean dollar (Bz$): Belizean monetary unit, divided into 100 cents. The official fixed exchange rate of US$1=Bz$2 was established in 1976 and remained in effect in 1991.; Source: Library of Congress
berms: a narrow ledge typically at the top of a slope. Here, walls of bulldozed sand constructed within the Western Sahara virtually paralleling its borders with Mauritania. Moroccan forces constructed the berms, which were subsequently fitted with special sensory devices to prevent Polisario guerrillas from infiltrating into territory controlled by Morocco.
Bessarabia: Region between the Dniester and Prut rivers north of the Black Sea. Seized by the Soviet Union in 1940, it was merged with Bukovina (q.v.) to form the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.
birr (pl., birr; no symbol used): The Ethiopian monetary unit, composed of 100 cents. Introduced officially in 1976, replacing the Ethiopian dollar at par. Through mid-1991, US$1 equaled 2.07 birr, or 1 birr was worth about US$0.48.
birta: Nepalese tax-free land tenure granted by the government primarily as a pension or as a reward to political supporters and family members, important especially during the Rana period; abolished 1959.; Source: Library of Congress
Bogomil heresy: A religious sect founded in Bulgaria and flourishing in the Balkans between the tenth and fifteenth centuries. It combined beliefs from several contemporaneous religions, most notably the Paulicians from Asia Minor (q.v.). The central belief was that the material world was created by the devil.; Source: Library of Congress
boliviano: Bolivia’s official unit of currency. Replaced the peso on January 1, 1987. In 1988 the exchange rate was B2.3=US$1. Readoption of the boliviano (Bolivia’s currency prior to January 1963) in January 1987 redressed the damage done to the currency by hyperinflation.; Source: Library of Congress
Bolshevik: A member of the radical group within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, which, under Vladimir I. Lenin’s leadership, staged the Bolshevik Revolution. In March 1918, the Bolsheviks formed the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) and began calling themselves Communists (q.v.). That party was the precursor of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU-- q.v.).; Source: Library of Congress
Brahman(s): From the Sanskrit brahmana, one of four major caste groups (varna) or social classes. Brahmans are the highest caste group, traditionally made up of priests, philosophers, scholars, and religious leaders. Not to be confused with brahman (q.v., the Absolute Reality).
Brezhnev Doctrine: The Soviet Union’s declared right to intervene in the internal affairs of another socialist state if the leading role of that state’s communist party was threatened. Formulated as justification for the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Mikhail S. Gorbachev implicitly abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine in 1989.
Bukovina (Bucovina in Romanian; Bukovyna in Ukrainian): An area in the eastern foothills of the Carpathian Mountains populated principally by ethnic Ukrainians and Romanians. Over the centuries, Bukovina has belonged to various states, including Kievan Rus’, Moldova, and Austria-Hungary. In 1940 the northern half of Bukovina became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, while the southern half remained part of Romania.; Source: Library of Congress
Bund(General Union of Jewish Workers in Russia and Poland): A Jewish socialist movement founded in Vilnius in 1897 by Jewish workers and intellectuals in the Russian Empire (q.v.). The Bund divided into two groups in 1920. The larger group merged with the Bolshevik (q.v.) branch of the communist party, while the minority remained independent until it was suppressed by the Bolshevik government. The Bund was active in Poland between the two world wars.; Source: Library of Congress
bushido: Literally, the way of the warrior (samurai), a term applied to the principles of loyalty and honor; a code of stoic endurance, scorn of danger and death, religious worship of country and sovereign, and proper social relationships; an aesthetic life- style.
cadre: The term for responsible party, government, and economic functionaries; also used for key officials in the educational, cultural, and scientific fields.
Cao Dai: Indigenous Vietnamese religion centered in Tay Ninh Province, southern Vietnam. It was founded and initially propagated by Ngo Van Chieu, a minor official who, in 1919, claimed to have had a series of revelations. The faith grew under the leadership of Le Van Trung, its first ""pope"" or Supreme Chief, chosen in 1925. Doctrinally, the religion is a syncretic blend of Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Confuciancism and Western nineteenth-century romanticism. Before the fall of Saigon, the Cao Dai had about 1 to 2 million adherents.
capitulations: Special agreements between the Ottoman Empire and various foreign governments giving those governments and their citizens and subjects specific exemptions from the laws of the empire.
central (pl., centrale): Large industrial associations created by economic reforms in the late 1960s ostensibly to assume some of the decision-making authority of the various economic ministries. They had little real autonomy.
Central Bank: Usually a federal government-related institution that is entrusted with control of the commercial banking system and with the issuance of the currency. Responsible for setting the level of credit and money supply in an economy and serving as the bank of last resort for other banks. Also has a major impact on interest rates, inflation, and economic output. Under Article 97 of the constitution, the Central Bank of Chile is an autonomous body.
CFA franc: The African Financial Community (Communauté Financière Africaine) franc, the currency of the organization of former French colonies, often referred to as the Franc Zone. The CFA franc was guaranteed by the French treasury and pegged to the French franc, into which it was freely convertible. In December 1988 the exchange rate was CFA F298 to US$1.
Ch'llima, or Ch'llima Work Team Movement: Intensive mass campaign to increase economic production inaugurated in 1958; began as Ch’llima Movement (Ch’llima Undong), named after the legendary Flying Horse said to have galloped a 1,000 li in a single day; a symbolic term for great speed. Farm and factory workers were exhorted to excel in the manner of Ch’llima riders, and exemplary individuals and work teams were awarded special Ch’llima titles. The labor force was organized into work teams and brigades and competed at increasing production. Superseded in the early 1960s by the Ch’ngsan-ni Method (q.v.) and the Taean Work System (q.v.), and then in 1973 by the Three Revolution Team Movement (q.v.).
chaebl: Korean translation of the Japanese word zaibatsu, or business conglomerate. A group of specialized (South Korean) companies with interrelated management servicing each other.
chena: Slash-and-burn agriculture. Forest or shrub undergrowth is cleared by cutting and burning. Land is farmed until its productivity falls, then new area is cleared. This type of agriculture usually is associated with shifting cultivation.
chikalsi, or jikhalsi: Refers to a major city under the direct administration of the central government rather than a provincial governor. In 1992 there were three chikalsi: P’yngyang, Kaesng, and Namp’o.
Chilean peso: (Ch$) Chile’s currency. Replaced escudo on September 29, 1975, at a rate of 1,000 escudos per peso. Peso notes are for 500, 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000 pesos; coins are for 1, 5, 10, 50, and 100 pesos. Official exchange rate of Chilean peso was pegged to United States dollar until July 3, 1992, at a rate adjusted at daily intervals and determined by monthly rates of national and world inflation. On January 26, 1992, the Central Bank (q.v.) revalued the peso, reducing the official dollar exchange rate by 5 percent, which meant it dropped from 395 to 375 pesos. On July 3, 1992, the Central Bank, in a move designed to halt currency speculation, announced the peso would no longer be measured exclusively against the United States currency, but rather would use a basket of the dollar, the German mark, and the Japanese yen in a 50-30-20 ratio.
Choch'ongryn: Abbreviation for Chae Ilbon Chson In Ch’ong Yonhaphoe, literally General Association of Korean Residents in Japan. Members of this Japan-based association tend to be supportive of North Korea’s foreign policy and have kinship and financial ties to North Korea. Known as Chosen Soren in Japanese.
cholo: A term that has a variety of definitions and social implications. During colonial times, it was equivalent to mestizo but has evolved to include persons of mixed or pure native American ancestry who are trying to move up the social and economic ladder by observing various Hispanic cultural norms. Cholos speak Spanish in addition to an indigenous language. Choloficación (Cholofication) refers to the transition process from native American to mestizo status.
chuch'e, or juche: Political ideology promulgated by Kim Il Sung. The application of Marxism-Leninism to the North Korean experience based on autonomy and self-reliance popularized since 1955 as an official guideline for independence in politics, economics, national defense, and foreign policy.