The Global Pulse Glossary: 100 Essential Terms In Politics, Business And Tech

Clear and consistent language has never mattered more. From global affairs to economic changes and new technologies, the conversations of today often involve terms that can feel complicated or unfamiliar. A basic understanding of commonly used terms helps readers stay informed, enables them to follow the developments with ease and participate in everyday discussions with much more confidence.

Keeping that in mind, here is a look at 100 essential terms across politics, business and technology.

Politics

1. Accountability: The principle that officials must explain their actions and take responsibility for their decisions.
2. Authoritarianism: A governing system where people are expected to obey authority with little or no personal freedom.
3. Ballot box: A sealed container where voters place their completed ballot papers.
4. Ballot paper: The sheet on which a voter marks an ‘X’ beside their chosen candidate.
5. Bureaucracy: The network of government departments and officials responsible for administration.
6. By-election: A special election held between general elections, usually when an MP dies or resigns.
7. Campaign: The period before an election when parties and candidates try to gain voter support.
8. Candidate: A person running for election, often representing a political party.
9. Coalition: When two or more political parties come together to form a government.
10. Constituency: A geographic area with defined boundaries represented by an elected MP.
11. Deficit: The deficit created when government spending surpasses its income from taxes.
12. Diplomacy: The art of handling international relations with discussions and negotiations.
13. Electoral college: A group of electors designated by each state who formally elect the president in the United States.
14. Electoral register: The list that contains all the names of persons eligible, and registered, to vote.
15. Executive order: An order issued by the head of state using executive powers.
16. Filibuster: An extended or obstructive speech in a legislature to delay or prevent a vote.
17. First-past-the-post: The UK voting system where the candidate with the most votes wins, even without a majority.
18. Gerrymandering: Manipulating of electoral boundaries for a particular political party or candidate.
19. Government: The party that runs the country; it’s usually formed by the party holding the majority of seats.
20. Hard power: Using military or economic force to influence other countries.
21. Hung parliament: A situation when no one party wins sufficient seats to have a majority within the parliament.
22. Impeachment: Proceedings against a public official with a view to his removal from public office.
23. Incumbent: The current officeholder seeking re-election.
24. Kingmaker: A smaller party, whose support enables a larger party to form a government during a hung parliament.
25. Landslide: A situation where one party wins an election by a large margin over others.
26. Lobbying: Organised efforts to influence lawmakers on specific policies or issues.
27. Manifesto: A document published by a political party that sets out the party’s plans and promises if elected.
28. Marginal seat: A constituency where competition is tight and outcome is not predictable.
29. Populism: A political style that appeals directly to the concerns and emotions of ordinary people.
30. Referendum: A public vote on a specific issue, typically requiring a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.
31. Returning officer: The official responsible for overseeing the voting process and announcing results.
32. Rule of law: The principle that everyone is equally subject to the law.
33. Sanctions: Economic or political penalties imposed on countries, groups or individuals.
34. Separation of powers: Power sharing between the legislative, executive and judicial branches to curb abuse of authority.
35. Soft power: A country’s ability to influence others through culture, diplomacy and persuasion rather than force.
36. Sovereignty: A state’s ultimate authority over its own territory and decisions.
37. Swing: The degree to which electoral support moves from one political party to another.
38. Transparency: Openness in government actions, decisions and processes.
39. Treaty: A formal agreement between nations that is legally binding in nature.
40. Vote of no-confidence: A parliamentary motion that, if passed, can force the government to resign.

Business And Finance

1. Balance sheet: A financial picture of the firm’s assets, liabilities and equity at a given point in time.
2. Bear market: That phase of the market where prices sharply go down, and investor attitude becomes risk-averse.
3. Bull market: When the financial markets show rising prices and strong confidence among investors.
4. Capitalism: A system where private individuals or firms subjectively own and control capital goods, while labourers earn wages without owning the means of production.
5. Cash flow: Money coming in and going out of the business.
6. Collateral: Something that a borrower puts up as security for a loan; it protects the lender.
7. Credit score: An assessment of a borrower’s ability to repay credit.
8. Debenture: A debt instrument not covered by collateral but depends on the creditworthiness of the issuer.
9. Equity: The value remaining in an asset or investment after debts are deducted; it also refers to ownership capital.
10. Gross Domestic Product: A measure of the total output of an economy, including consumer spending, government spending, investment and net exports.
11. Goods and Services Tax: A kind of value-added tax that falls on most goods and services and forms part of their final price.
12. Gross income: A person’s total earnings before taxes and deductions.
13. Income statement: A report summarising a company’s revenue, expenses, gains and losses over a specific period.
14. Inflation: A situation of continued increase in general price levels, eventually diminishing purchasing power.
15. Initial Public Offering: The first offering of a privately held company to go into the general public on an exchange.
16. Joint venture: A business partnership where two or more parties combine resources and share profits, losses and control.
17. Leverage: The utilisation of money borrowed to increase possible profit on any investment.
18. Liquidity: The degree to which an asset can be converted into cash at market value.
19. Macroeconomics: Branch of economics that studies the broader economy, such as national income, markets and government policies.
20. Monetary policy: Actions taken by a central bank to regulate money supply and interest rates to support economic goals.
21. Mutual fund: Investment vehicle pooling investors’ money to invest in a diversified portfolio of securities.
22. Net worth: The total value of the assets minus the total liabilities for individual or business.
23. Ponzi scheme: A fraudulent investment scheme where returns to early investors are paid using funds from new investors, eventually collapsing when new money runs out.
24. Recession: A fall in the level of economic activity that is both broad-based and long-lasting.
25. Short selling: A trading strategy where investors profit from falling prices by borrowing and selling shares, then repurchasing them at a lower price.
26. Stock market: A place where firms offer their shares, and investors purchase and sell them.
27. Trade deficit: When the imports of a country in a certain period are greater than its exports.
28. Unemployment rate: The proportion of the labour force that is out of work and looking for work.
29. Venture Capitalist: One who puts capital into high-scale startups and, in turn, takes part of the equity.

Technology

1. Algorithm: A well-defined set of instructions to solve a problem or perform some tasks.
2. Artificial intelligence: The ability of machines to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence.
3. Back-end: The behind-the-scenes area of a website dealing with servers, databases and overall functionality.
4. Dark web: A hidden part of the internet accessible only through special browsers known for privacy and anonymity.
5. Data centre: A secure facility filled with servers and storage systems where organisations store and manage information.
6. Deep web: The part of the internet which is not indexed by search engines, for example, private databases, and internal systems.
7. Downtime: The time during which a website or a server is down or inaccessible.
8. End user: The person who finally uses a product, app, or website.
9. File Transfer Protocol: A method used to move files between computers over a network.
10. Front-end: Anything that you see or interact with on the website, such as layout, design, features.
11. HTML5: The modern language of coding through which websites, videos, and interactive content are built.
12. ISP (Internet Service Provider): The company that allows homes and businesses to access the internet.
13. Linux hosting: Web hosting that uses the Linux operating system, known for being stable and secure.
14. Web server: A computer that stores and distributes website content to a client.
15. Sandboxing: An application is executed in a protected, isolated environment for testing purposes without risking system damage.
16. Server hosting: Renting space on a remote server to store data, run websites and manage online services.
17. Surface web: The public part of the internet that search engines can easily find.
18. Uptime: Refers to how much time a website or server stays online without going down.
19. User Interface: The visual and interactive elements which allow users to control a device or app.
20. API (Application Programming Interface): A tool that allows different software systems to communicate and work together.
21. Bandwidth: The maximum amount of data that can be transferred through a network at one time.
22. CPU (Central Processing Unit): The main processor of a computer that runs apps and operating systems.
23. Data architecture: The design process that defines how data is to be collected, stored, accessed, and used.
24. DNS: This is the system used to transform website names, such as google.com, into numerical IP addresses.
25. Ethernet: A cable-based way to connect computers to a local network.
26. Firewall: Software or hardware protection against unauthorised network invasion.
27. Latency: The length of time before data begins transferring over a network.
28. Library: A collection of code written already that programmers use to hasten software development.
29. Machine learning: Technology where computers learn from data and improve performance over time.
30. Near-field communication: Short-range wireless tech used for contactless payments and quick device-to-device connections.
31. WYSIWYG: A tool where the content you create looks the same as the final result, like in website builders.