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.

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
Bund: A political labor organization of Jewish workers founded in Vilna, Lithuania in 1987. The name is an abbreviation in Yiddish for The General Union of Jewish Workers in Russia, Lithuania, and Poland. The Bund opposed Zionism and viewed Yiddish as the only secular Jewish language.; Source: Library of Congress
campesino: A Latin American Indian farmer or farm laborer.; Source: Library of Congress
capital-intensive production: A high ratio of capital to labor and other resources used in the production process.
Carta di Lavoro: This electoral model involves ""functional representation"" by corporate groups; that is, instead of having direct elections for the national legislature by districts or by proportional representation, elections are indirect within corporate management and labor unions.; Source: Library of Congress
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 Superseded in the early 1960s by the Ch’ngsan-ni Method (q.v.) and the Taean Work System (q.v.), and then in 1973 by the Three Revolution Team Movement (q.v.).
clientelism: Personal relationships that link patrons and clients together in a system in which jobs, favors, and protection are exchanged for labor, support, and loyalty.; Source: Library of Congress
corporatist, corporatism: A political system in which various groups (for instance, the military, labor, and peasants) are organized into official constituencies. The various constituencies influence government policy and are supported by government patronage.
encomenderos: Colonial grantees, usually large landowners, to rights over native American labor and tribute in exchange for assuming responsibility to protect and Christianize these native subjects.
encomienda(s): A system or legal arrangement adopted in 1503 whereby the Spanish crown assigned rights over native American labor and tribute in the Spanish American colonies to individual colonists (encomenderos) in return for protecting and Christianizing their subjects. However, most native Americans ended up as virtual slaves with no recognized rights. Not to be confused with the landed estate (latifundio--q.v.), the system was not ended until late in the eighteenth century.
Encomiendas: A Spanish, colonial system of land grants to Conquistadors that included rights to the use of Indian labor.
European Economic Area (EEA): An economic area encompassing all the members of the European Union (EU--q.v.) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA--q.v.), with the exception of Switzerland. Created in May 1992, the EEA went into effect on January 1, 1994. The EEA is a single market for the free movement of labor, services, capital (with some restrictions on investments), and most products. EFTA members have agreed to accept EU regulations in many areas, including company law, education, environmental protection, mergers, and social policy.; Source: Library of Congress
Factor markets: Producer goods markets in which factors of production--inputs such as land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship, and other material instruments used in production of goods and services--are procured.
factors of production: Land (or natural resources), labor, capital goods, sometimes entrepreneurship, and other resources used in the production of goods and services.; Source: Library of Congress
Great Depression: The 1929-34 economic slump in North America and other industrialized areas of the world. It was precipitated by the collapse of the United States stock market in October 1929. The term ""depression"" denotes, in its economic sense, a cyclical phase of the economy with high unemployment of labor and capital, business and consumer pessimism, accumulated inventories, minimal investment, and, in some sectors, falling prices.
Great Leap Forward: A drive to increase industrial and agricultural production following the suspension of Soviet aid and the desire to catch up with the advanced nations of the world. The campaign was conceived by Mao Zedong in late 1957, adopted by the National People’s Congress (q.v.)in 1958; it continued through 1960. Emphasis was placed on accelerated collectivization of agriculture, national self-sufficiency, and labor-intensive methods. The campaign resulted in widespread waste of resources and was partially responsible for famine in 1960 and 1961.
gult: A principle of land tenure among the Amhara, Tigray, and, with modifications, elsewhere. Abolished by the military government in 1975. Gult rights were rights granted by the emperor or his designated representative either to members of the ruling group as a reward for service or to Ethiopian Orthodox churches or monasteries as endowments. The holder of gult rights, often but not always an official, was entitled to collect tribute and demand labor from those on the land over which he held rights. Some of the tribute was kept, and the remainder was passed upward.
HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael (General Federation of Laborers in the Land of Israel): Commonly known as Histadrut. Founded in 1920, this national- level organization was also the nation’s largest single employer after the government. Histadrut performs many economic and welfare services in addition to trade union activities; leadership of Histadrut has generally been drawn from the Labor Party and its predecessors.; Source: Library of Congress
Menshevik: A member of a wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party before and during the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Unlike the Bolsheviks (q.v.), the Mensheviks believed in the gradual achievement of socialism by parliamentary methods.; Source: Library of Congress
mita: A compulsory labor system implemented by the Spaniards to work the mines. Required that all able-bodied Indian men present themselves periodically for short periods of paid work in the mines. Was abused by inhumane treatment of the conscripts, arbitrary extensions of the service period, and depletion of individual communities of their adult males.; Source: Library of Congress
mita de minas: A compulsory labor system implemented by the Spaniards to work the mines. Required that all able-bodied native American men present themselves periodically for short periods of paid work in the mines. System led to abuses: inhumane treatment of the conscripts, arbitrary extensions of the service period, and depletion of adult males from individual communities.
mita system: A colonial system whereby all taxpayers had to work a prescribed number of days annually in the mita, or labor pool, to run the households of local leaders. Each taxpayer could be called up by his or her curaca (chief) to work on imperial or local projects at any convenient time.
PALA: Partido Laborista Agrario (Labor and Agrarian Party, often referred to simply as the Labor Party). Despite title, generally right-of- center, pro-business. Part of pro-government coalition, UNADE (q.v.).
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.
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
repartimiento: Derived from Spanish verb repartir (to divide up); a loosely regulated system under which Spanish colonial authorities were empowered to impose and regulate the labor of Indians.
sharia: Traditional code of Islamic law, both civil and criminal, based in part on the Quran (q.v.). Also drawn from the hadith (q.v.); the consensus of Islamic belief (ijma; i.e., concensus of the authorities on a legal question); and analogy (qiyas; i.e., an elaboration of the intent of law).
Tamils: Ethnic group, predominantly Hindu, whose language is Tamil, a Dravidian language spoken by the Tamil minority in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka; and which is the major regional language spoken in Tamil Nadu State, southeast India. Sri Lankan Tamils are descendants of settlers and invaders and are a native minority that represented approximately 12.6 percent of the population in 1981. Indian Tamils are descendants of estate laborers imported under British sponsorship to the island primarily in the nineteenth century, and represented approximately 5.5 percent of the population in 1981. The Indian Tamil population has been shrinking because of repatriation programs to Tamil Nadu.
Tariff Schedule 807 program: Refers to items 806.3 and 807 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States that allow the duty-free entry of goods whose final product contains a certain portion of raw material or labor value added in the Caribbean Basin.; Source: Library of Congress
twin plant: Productive arrangements whereby two or more producers in separate countries complementarily share the production of a good or service. Under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), such arrangements with the government of Puerto Rico potentially benefited from special investment or 936 funds (q.v.). The operations of twin plant ventures typically entailed the delegation of assembly or other labor-intensive production stages to plants in a CBI-designated country, from which these semi-finished products would then be shipped duty-free to Puerto Rico for final processing.; Source: Library of Congress
UGSR: Uniunea Generalâ a Sindicatelor din România (General Union of Trade Unions). Official organization incorporating all labor unions of blue- and white-collar workers. Membership in 1985 was 7.3 million.
ulama: Collective term for Muslim religious scholars (sing., alim) learned in the Quran (q.v.) and responsible for interpreting and elaborating on the shaira (q.v.). Derived from Arabic verb alama (to know).
velayat-e faqih: The guardianship of the religious jurist. Concept elaborated by Ayatollah Khomeini to justify political rule by the clergy.