Politics & Power — C1 English Vocabulary

Using politics & power words in English

Advanced political vocabulary is largely Greek in origin and precise in a way that news coverage often is not. Despot, autocrat, tyrant and dictator are not simply four ways of saying bad ruler. This page also covers incumbent, which carries a second and entirely unrelated meaning that appears constantly in formal writing, and hegemony, whose pronunciation genuinely varies.

What to watch out for

• Autocrat, despot, oligarchy

  An autocrat holds absolute power alone — the term is structural and describes how power is distributed. A despot is an autocrat who rules oppressively, so the word adds a judgement. An oligarchy is rule by a small group rather than one person. Demagoguery is different again: it names a technique — winning support by appealing to prejudice and emotion rather than to reason.

• Incumbent has two unrelated meanings

  As a noun and adjective it means the current holder of an office: the incumbent president, the incumbent faces a strong challenge. But in the fixed construction it is incumbent upon someone to do something it means obligatory: It is incumbent upon the committee to investigate. Both are current and formal, and only the structure tells you which is meant.

• Enfranchise, disenfranchise, and how to say hegemony

  To enfranchise is to grant the right to vote; to disenfranchise is to remove it, and the word has broadened to mean depriving any group of power or voice. Hegemony — dominance of one state or group over others — has several accepted pronunciations in British English, with the stress on the second syllable being the most usual. A plebiscite is a direct vote on a single question, close to a referendum but often used of questions of sovereignty.

Words learners mix up

Political analysis depends on words that look like intensifiers of one another and are actually claims about different things — how much of life is controlled, how power changed hands, and how a process was rigged.

Collocations that sound natural

Political reporting runs on a small set of verb-plus-noun pairings, and the verb usually tells you what the writer thinks. Seizing power and coming to power describe the same outcome and take opposite sides.

• ascendancy

  seize powercome to powercling to powergain ascendancy overa transfer of power

  Seize and cling to are hostile; come to power is the neutral form and makes no claim about legitimacy. Ascendancy is the formal noun for having risen above rivals, and it takes over.

• coup

  stage a coupa failed coupa bloodless coupa coup attempt

  The verb is stage, mount or launch — never make.

• repression

  brutal repressionpolitical repressionstate repressiona wave of repression

• enact / repeal

  enact legislationrepeal an actrepeal the bancome into force

  You enact a law to create it and repeal it to undo it. Statutory is the adjective for anything required by such a law: a statutory duty.

• dissident

  a leading dissidenta dissident writerexiled dissidentssilence dissidents

  Both noun and adjective, and it implies opposition to an authoritarian state specifically — an opposition MP in a democracy is not a dissident.

• electorate

  appeal to the electoratethe electorate at largea divided electorate

  A collective noun taking either a singular or plural verb in British English. A single voter in a district is a constituent.

See the full C1 collocations list →

Formal, neutral or informal?

This vocabulary is thick with loanwords that kept their foreign shape and with words that sound analytical while quietly passing judgement. One of them is also the source of the commonest idiom error in written English.

• reignSpelling trapA monarch’s reign is a period of rule. The idiom for unrestricted freedom is free rein, from letting a horse’s reins go slack — a different word. Free reign is now extremely common and still marked wrong, as is reign in spending for rein in.
• realpolitikGerman loanwordPolitics conducted on practical power rather than principle. Usually lower-case in English and often italicised, and it carries a faint approval of hard-headedness that cynicism does not.
• cloutInformalInfluence you actually possess: political clout, she has real clout in the party. Uncountable, entirely at home in journalism and speech, too casual for an academic essay.
• ideologuePejorativeSomeone who follows a doctrine rigidly regardless of circumstances. Nobody applies it to themselves, and it is not a neutral word for a person with beliefs.
• statesmanshipApproving · dated framingWise, principled leadership above party interest — always a compliment. Note that statesman is grammatically gendered, and current writing often prefers political leadership for that reason.
• dominionArchaic · historicalControl or sovereign territory. In modern English it survives mainly in historical accounts of the Commonwealth, and in general prose it reads as deliberately grand.
• machinationFormal · pejorativeNearly always plural — the machinations of the party leadership — and always implies scheming. Pronounced with a hard k.
• bipartisanNeutral · AmericanSupported by both main parties. Standard in American coverage; British writing more often says cross-party. The opposite quality is partisanship.

Sentences to try

Four frames from political analysis. Note which words describe structure and which pass judgement.

• The incumbent is expected to hold the seat comfortably.
• It is incumbent upon the government to explain the delay.
• The reforms gradually enfranchised the rural population.
• The region has lived under regional hegemony for a century.

Questions about politics & power vocabulary