The lexicon

Figuring out how to make this page work is going to be a doozy, so please have some patience while I struggle with my own ineptitude. The purpose of The Lexicon is to give readers a working knowledge of terms necessary to understand modern politics.  In addition to basic definitions The Lexicon will include a bit of flavor text that should connect each definition to some aspect of the modern United States.  The Lexicon is being developed as articles come out and is therefore going to appear out of alphabetical and thematic order.  If you are looking for a specific term I would suggest using (ctrl f) then entering the desired term or word in the drop box.

Negative Freedom: Negative freedom is the freedom from something.  In the cultural context of the United States freedom and negative freedom have a strong ideological tie.  Such freedom is usually meant to express freedom from government interference. Negative freedom is the sort of freedom that lets you give the president the finger, write political blogs, and publicly admit that you kind of think that on Miley Cyrus song is catchy without fear of government retribution.  This form of freedom is however imperfect.  A poor orphan child with a heart of gold and leukemia is free to request medical care, and a pharmacist is free not to give him his medication because his change cup didn’t have enough charity nickles in it.

Positive Freedom:  Positive freedom is the freedom to something.  In the context of the United States this can be something good, like freedom to an attorney, freedom to be judged by a jury of your peers instead of by a drone bombing (this freedom is being increasingly stepped on), or freedom to a public education.  Government programs designed to guarantee positive freedom often have a price tag associated with them and are frequently, and to some extent correctly, associated with socialism.

The Iron Triangle: A model of government decision making that focuses on the interactions of politicians, private interests, and bureaucracies to explain policy outcomes.  For a more in depth look at the iron triangle see the levers of political power page.

Median Voter Theorem: A model of political decision making that contends that a majority rule system will choose a policy or politician that most closely resembles the median voter.  For a more in depth look at MVT see the levers of political power page

Public Sector Deficit: The flow of government sector spending, less the flow of government revenue over the course of a given time period.  This time period is frequently measured in years.  It is important to note that if a government prints its own money every dollar the government spends that isn’t funneled into a black market goes into the private sector or foreign account.  It is therefore true that for the private sector in a country with a fiat currency to run a surplus that that either their own government, or a foreign entity must run a deficit.

Fiat Currency: A currency issued by a government declared to be legal tender that is neither convertible to a fixed commodity (gold, silver, etc.) nor possessing much intrinsic value.  Most developed economies, including the United States, use a fiat currency.  This means most governments print their own money and regulate, to some extent, the money supply of their nation.  By accounting identity, for the private sector of a fiat nation to run a surplus, a government somewhere must run a deficit.  Governments having to run a deficit is not necessarily a bad thing, articles will follow to explain why.