The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (4 page)

 
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ANC
. Soviet military involvement in Afghanistan was a key factor leading to the end of
détente
and to more hostile relations between Moscow and the United States in the first half of the 1980s. The large number of Soviet casualties also had a profoundly radicalizing impact on politics in the Soviet Union itself after the election of Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1985 and the introduction of
perestroika
. In line with Gorbachev's policy of ‘new political thinking’, the Soviet Union announced a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan which was completed in 1989. The Afghan communist regime fell in 1992.
SWh 

 
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The art or science of controlling an agenda so as to maximize the probability of getting a favourable outcome. As many
social choice
procedures have the property that a given set of preferences can lead to different outcomes if votes are taken in a different order, there is often scope for manipulative agenda setting.
The phrase is also used more broadly for efforts to change the political agenda by adding or subtracting issues.

 
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This term refers to the conversion of political demands into alternative courses of action, usually by political parties. It formed part of the
structural functionalist
approach to the study of politics.
WG 

 
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Parties representing farmers have been a significant feature of many Western political systems, but are now declining in importance. As urbanization and industrialization reduce the share of the rural population in the electorate, agrarian parties have found it more difficult to sustain an electoral base, and a number have either faded away, or have converted themselves into parties with a more general electoral appeal. The interests of farmers may be more effectively represented by national farmers' organizations with close links with the national agricultural ministry, the pattern which has been followed in Britain and Germany. Agrarian parties have been particularly important in Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden), and have appeared in some of the new democracies of Eastern and Central Europe, such as Hungary, and Poland. The Country Party in Australia has operated in alliance with the Liberal Party. To some extent the electoral weakness of agrarian parties in urbanized societies is offset by their organizational strength, based on their links with a network of rural and farming organizations; high memberships and high membership ratios; an ability to mobilize their members; and stable leadership and internal party unity. Particularly in political systems based on
proportional representation
with a strong tradition of coalition government, agrarian parties that have converted themselves into centre parties with a broader appeal have been frequent participants in government. The
Keskustapuolue
(KESK) in Finland has one of the most impressive records of postwar office for a party with a rural base, although the Swiss Volkspartei (formerly the BGB, the Burghers, Artisans and Peasants Party) has been represented in the Federal Council since 1929. In general, the electoral base for an agrarian party is too narrow to make it an effective presence in most modern political systems.
WG 

 
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An alderman was an indirectly elected member of county and county borough councils in England and Wales prior to the 1972 Local Government Act. The aldermen, who were elected by councillors generally from among their own number, composed a third of the council, and served for six years, one half seeking re-election every three years. Abolition resulted from the conflict with the principle of direct election in local government, as well as the unscrupulous use of their majority by dominant party groups in aldermanic elections.
The term is also used to denote elected local council representatives in US cities, especially in the Northeast.
JBr