Cabinet: an advisory committee to a president or prime minister, formed by the heads of government departments.

Caliphate: the office or rank of caliph (meaning ruler), in a Muslim country. The term derives from the title taken by the successors of Mohammed, the founder of Islam.

Capitalism: an economic system in which the means of production, such as land and factories, are privately owned and operated for profit. Usually ownership is concentrated in the hands of a small number of people. Capitalism, which developed during the Industrial Revolution, is associated with free enterprise, although in practice even capitalist societies have government regulations for business, to prevent monopolies and to cushion domestic industries from foreign competition. Opponents of capitalism say that the economy should be organized to serve the public good, not private profit. Supporters say capitalism creates wealth, which creates jobs, which create prosperity for everyone.

Carter doctrine: the doctrine enunciated by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, stating that "An attempt by any outside forces to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force." The Carter Doctrine, although it was not formally invoked, was put to the test after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The resulting Persian Gulf War in 1991 showed that the U.S. did indeed regard the attempt by a belligerent country to gain control of more than its allocated share of the region to be an assault on the vital interests of the U.S.

Caste: an exclusive, often hereditary, class or group. Hindus in India live in a caste system, with four distinct classes, or castes, which traditionally are not allowed to mix with each other.

Centralization: the administration of a government by a central authority. Centralization, understood as the concentrating of power or authority in the hands of the state, is often associated with socialist or communist systems.

Centrism:  In politics, a centrist is some one with moderate political views, which are neither strongly right wing nor strongly left wing. Or a political position that is neither left nor right but which occupies the middle ground.

Chain of command:  the order in which authority is wielded and passed down. A military chain of command would extend from the most senior officers in an unbroken link down to the ranks.

Character assassination: an unrelenting series of attacks on a person's character, often employing exaggerated, distorted, or even false information. When used in political races, character assassination is a tactic designed to take attention away from issues and place it on the opposing candidate, who is portrayed as being unfit for office.

Charisma: in political speech refers to a person's flair and personal magnetism, his or her ability to inspire voters. Charismatic candidates exude charm and power; they excite people and can persuade them to be devoted to their cause. To say a politician lacks charisma is virtually to say he is dull. Examples of charismatic leaders include President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Chauvinism: an unreasoning and aggressive kind of patriotism. Also refers to any contemptuous attitude to another race, nation, or sex, as in male chauvinism.

Checks and balances: a mechanism that guards against absolute power in any governing body by providing for separate governing bodies having equal power. Power is equitably distributed or balanced amongst the various branches of government (e.g., legislative, judicial, executive) and provisions are made for checking or restricting too much power in any one office. The system of checks and balances is a major part of the American system of government provided by the constitution to prevent any person or persons or sector of government from gaining too much power. The system emphasizes the interdependence of various forms of government. It operates among the judicial, executive, and legislative branches of government as well as between state and national governments.

Christian Democrats: political parties in several countries in Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Christian Democrats are usually Roman Catholics, and have had considerable influence on political policies in the above countries since the end of World War II, particularly in the area of social reform.

Church and state:  the U.S. constitution provides for the strict separation of church and state. The First Amendment states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Opponents of the movement to introduce prayer into public schools argue that such a provision would violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

Civil disobedience:  refusal to obey laws. This tactic is most effective when used by fairly large groups as a way of getting unjust laws changed. Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) and his followers in India mounted many campaigns of mass civil disobedience in their campaign for independence from Britain. The American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, led by Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68), used the same tactic. Civil disobedience is usually passive and nonviolent, aimed at bringing injustices to the attention of lawmakers and the public at large.

Civil liberties: the freedoms people have a right to in a society. They consist mostly of freedom of movement and association; freedom of religion, and freedom of expression. The idea of civil liberties is deeply embedded in the United States; it is enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

Civil rights: rights granted by a state to all its citizens. In the U.S. this refers to the rights enshrined in the constitution and Bill of Rights. Civil rights prevent the government from intruding on personal liberties.

Civil war:  a war between different factions, whether geographical or political, within one state or nation.

Class: a number of people or things grouped together; a group of people that are linked together because of certain things held in common, such as occupation, social status, economic background: ruling class, middle class, working class, etc.

Class struggle: conflict between different classes in a society. The idea of class struggle held an important place in Marxism. Karl Marx divided society into two broad groups: the capitalists, or bourgeoisie, and the proletariat, or workers. Their interests were inevitably opposed, according to Marx, because one group (the proletariat) was always being exploited by the other (the bourgeoisie), so that capitalist society was a constant struggle between them. Marx believed that eventually the proletariat would triumph and a new classless society would emerge. The idea of class struggle, as with other main tenets of Marxism, holds much less appeal worldwide now than it has done for most of this century, because of the general failure and collapse of Marxist systems around the globe.

Classical economics: the dominant theory of economics from the eighteenth century until superseded by neoclassical economics in the twentieth century. It is associated with Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776) John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy (1848), and the work of David Ricardo (1772-1823), who were the first to systematically establish a body of economic principles. The basic idea was that the economy functioned most efficiently if everyone was allowed to pursue his or her own self-interest. Classical economics therefore favored laissez faire; the primary economic law was that of competition. See also Keynesianism; neo-classical economics.

Coalition: a coalition is a group consisting of people from different political or social groups who are cooperating to achieve a particular aim. It can also refer to a combination of parties or states. For example, in 1991 a U.S-led international coalition defeated Iraq in the Persian Gulf War. Domestically, coalitions can be made up of many organizations which band together to pursue a particular cause, as for example the Christian Coalition is a coalition made up of many different Christian organizations for the purpose of influencing public debate on moral affairs. There can also be legislative coalitions, in which legislators team up with others to advance a particular issue or piece of legislation, even though they may not be of the same party or agree on any other issues.

Code: a code is a set of rules about how people should behave, or it is a systematically organized set of laws, such as the criminal code and the civil code.

Codification:  the act of arranging laws in a code.

Coercion: the use of force or other powerful means of persuasion to get someone to do something. Often used to refer to government by force.

Coexistence: a tacit agreement between two or more groups, parties, nations etc., that are in fundamental disagreement or conflict that they will not go to war. Coexistence is not quite the same as peace, because the parties remain wary of each other and often hostile, but they accept that widely different ideologies and social systems can exist without those differences alone being a cause for war. Coexistence was a phrase often used during the Cold War, when it was a preferable alternative to the U.S. and the Soviet Union incinerating the entire world in a nuclear holocaust.

Cold War: the struggle between the U.S. and Western Europe against the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies. It involved confrontation but no actual "hot" warfare. The Cold War began in the 1940s when the U.S. believed it was imperative to check Soviet expansionist designs on Western Europe. It reached its height during the 1950s and 1960s, when the threat of nuclear annihilation hung over the world, particularly during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. The Cold War made itself felt all over the globe; it was as if the entire world was divided into two units of East and West. No small regional Third World conflict was insignificant. The U.S. backed any regime that was anti-communist; while the Soviets tried to expand their influence anywhere they could, from Cuba and Central America to the Middle East and Africa. The Cold War eased slightly during the 1970s as a result of the U.S - Soviet policy of détente. It finally began to wind down in the late 1980s. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev had come to power in the Soviet Union and had begun his policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). The Soviet Union and the U.S. agreed to wide-ranging arms control measures. Then when communism crumbled in Eastern Europe in 1989, without resistance from Moscow, U.S - Soviet relations warmed dramatically. By 1990, the Cold War was virtually over. Many claim that the U.S. won the Cold War because of the massive U.S. arms buildup during the Reagan administration of 1981-89. The Soviets knew they could not match this and so had to come to the bargaining table. Others say that the Soviet Union would have been forced to reform anyway, because its economic system was so inefficient.

See the second part of the Political Dictionary for C