Sammy Doe factor: Often referred to in studies of military coups, refers to an unlettered, noncommissioned officer who was in the right place at the right time and who, with a handful of equally unlettered comrades, overthrew a regime. (Lowenkopf 1995: 100-101)
Secret police: Special police force organized by autocratic or totalitarian regimes. These forces rely heavily on torture for investigative purposes and detention for isolating prisoners. (Microsoft Corporation 1997-1999: http://encarta.msn.com/)
Separatism: A movement by a region or territory or ethnic group to break away from a country of which it is a part. For example, since the fall of communism separatism has broken out in many regions in Europe, where groups of people with a distinct cultural identity have sought to free themselves from the larger nation that formerly contained them. (Fast Times 1999: http://www.fast-times.com/political.html)
Small arms: Weapons capable of being carried and operated by one individual, such as pistols, rifles, light machineguns, and rocket-propelled grenades.
Social capital: This term refers to features of social organizations, such as networks, norms and trust, that facilitate cooperation and coordination for mutual benefit. It is an analogy with notions of physical and human capital in that these networks, like tools and training, enhance individual productivity. (Putnam 1995: http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/journal_of_democracy/v006/putnam.html)
Social constructionism: A perception of an individual, group, or idea that is “constructed” through cultural and social practices but appears to be “natural” or “the way things are.” For example, the idea that women “naturally” like to do housework is a social construction because this idea appears “natural” due to its historical repetition rather than being “true” in any essential sense. (UMD Diversity Dictionary, http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Diversity/Reference/divdic.html)
Social justice: A condition of society where political, religious, cultural, and civil rights enjoy full protection; there is little or no political or social discrimination; all individuals are free to participate in political processes and society; basic human needs are met for all residents and resources are distributed fairly; rule of law and security is guaranteed.
Societal collapse: The extended breakdown of social coherence: society, as the generator of institutions of cohesion and maintenance, can no longer create, aggregate, and articulate the supports and demands that are the foundations of the state. (Hyden 1992 cited by Zartman 1995: 6)
Sphere of influence: A geopolitical zone within which the interests and influence of a major power are acknowledged by others to be paramount and worthy of deference. (Freeman 1997: 135)
Sphere of obligation: Who or what enjoys the protection of principles of identifiable norms or laws. (Gurr and Harff 1994: 193)
Spoilers: Disgruntled followers, excluded parties and alienated leaders who believe that peace emerging from negotiations threatens their power, worldview and interests, and who use violence to undermine attempts to achieve it. (Stedman 1997, cited by Baker and Weller 1998: 35)
Spoils system: Practice of making appointments to public office and giving employment in the public service on the basis of political affiliation or personal relationship rather than on merit, and the practice of favoritism in the award of contracts for public purposes and the expenditure of public funds. (Microsoft Corporation 1997-1999: http://encarta.msn.com/)
State: A political entity that has legal jurisdiction and physical control over a defined territory and the authority to make collective decisions for a permanent population, a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, and an internationally recognized government that interacts, or has the capacity to interact, in formal relations with other entities. A state must perform minimum functions for the public to maintain social cohesion. (Baker & Weller 1998: 10)
State capacity: One country’s ability to maximize its prosperity and stability, to exert de facto control over its territory, to protect its population from predation, and to adapt to diverse crises. In other words, it is the capability of the government to satisfy the state’s most important needs: survival, protection of citizens from physical harm as a result of internal and external predation, economic prosperity and stability, effective governance, territorial integrity, and power and ideological projection. (Price-Smith 1999: 8-9)
State class: A group from which elected representatives or government officials are heavily recruited and thus wields predominant influence over the state apparatus. (PCSG 2000)
A) Failure to perform essential functions a state is normally responsible for, such as defense of its international boarders, enforcement of law and order, and delivery of basic services.
B) The collapse of central authority. State failure can be manifested by revolutionary wars (sustained military conflict between insurgents and central governments aimed at displacing the regime); ethnic wars (secessionist civil wars, rebellions, protracted communal warfare and sustained episodes of mass protest by politically organized communal groups); genocides and politicides (sustained policies by states or their agents); civil wars by contending authorities that result in the deaths of a substantial portion of members of communal or political groups; or adverse or disruptive regime transitions (major, abrupt shifts in patterns of governance, including state collapse, periods of severe instability, and shifts towards authoritarian rule. (Esty et al 1995: 7)
C) A deeper phenomenon than mere rebellion coup or riot. It refers to a situation where the structure, authority (legitimate power), law, and political order have fallen apart and must be reconstituted in some new form. (Zartman 1995: 1)
A) Violent attacks and abductions by security forces or vigilante groups acting with the tacit approval of state officials. (Harff 1986; cited by Harff and Gurr 1997: http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/mar/pubs.htm)
B) For many people, the concept of “terrorism” applies only to non-governmental groups that use violence against innocent people as a means of attaining their political objectives. Some scholars regard that usage as too limited, however. They argue that governments, too, have used terrorist tactics– in pursuit of national security policy – including arbitrary arrest, imprisonment without trial, torture, and summary execution of members of alleged enemy groups (Summers and Markusen 1999: xi)
Stratified society: A society in which status, power, and wealth are unequally distributed among groups according to their ethnicity. (Gurr and Harff 1994: 193)
Structural prevention: Measures to ensure that crises do not arise in the first place, or, if they do, that they do not recur. Strategies include putting in place international legal systems, dispute resolution mechanisms, and cooperative arrangements; meeting the society’s basic economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian needs; and rebuilding nations that have been shattered by war or other major crises. (Carnegie Commission 1997: xix, xxviii)
Structural variable: Indicator that captures long-term conditions of a society that are embedded in its social, political, and other institutional arrangements and lay the foundation of risk assessment.
Structural violence: An important but insufficiently appreciated means by which government policies result in large numbers of deaths: the creation or tolerance of harmful social conditions. While impaired health and life expectancies may result from what we might term behavioral violence, less explicit structural violence can have the same effects. Situations in which a group of people suffer because they are denied resources to meet their basic needs. (Summers and Markusen 1999: xi)
Sustainability: A normative concept that has appeared in development theory as a consequence of the environmental concerns from the early 1970s onwards. The main message it carries is that neither the old nor any new international economic order would be viable unless the natural biological systems that underpin the global economy are preserved. This ecological imperative in turn calls for a redirection of the development process itself. (Hettne 1993: 136)
A) Long-term development efforts aimed at bringing improvements in economic, political, and social status and the quality of life of all segments of the population as well as environmental sustainability.
B) Broad-based sustainable development has four components. The first is a healthy, growing economy that constantly transforms itself to maintain and enhance the standard of living. Second, the benefits of economic growth are equitably shared; women, minorities, immigrants, the poor, and the handicapped get a fair deal from economic growth. The third component includes respect for human rights, good governance, a vibrant civil society of non-governmental organizations, and an increasingly democratic society. The fourth is sustainability, which means that in the process of economic growth, we do not destroy the environment, enabling our descendants to enjoy the same or higher standard of living. (Weaver et al 1997: 2-3)
Sustainable security: The ability of a society to solve its own law and order problems and security from external threats peacefully without an external administration or military presence. The standard by which one measures sustainability security is the existence of the ‘immutable core’ of a state, specifically four core institutions: a competent domestic police force and corrections system; an efficient and functioning civil service or professional bureaucracy; an independent judicial system that works under the rule of law; and a professional and disciplined military accountable to a legitimate civilian authority. (Baker & Weller 1998: 10)