📚 A-Level Cambridge Politics: Key Terminology Quick-Study Guide | A-Level Cambridge 政治：词汇术语速记指南
Mastering the vocabulary of A-Level Cambridge Politics is the gateway to high-scoring essays and precise analysis. This guide drills into the essential terms you will encounter across the UK and US political landscapes, helping you move from passive recognition to active, confident use under timed conditions.
掌握 A-Level Cambridge 政治的术语是写出高分论文和进行精准分析的基础。这份指南深入解析英国与美国政治领域中的核心词汇，帮助你从被动识别转向在限时条件下主动、自信地运用这些概念。
1. Core Principles of Politics | 政治学核心原则
Power is the ability to make others do something they would not otherwise do, often through coercion, influence, or authority. It can be held by individuals, groups, or institutions and is the fundamental currency of political analysis.
权力 是让他人做出原本不会做出的行为的能力，通常通过强制、影响或权威实现。它可以由个人、团体或机构掌握，是政治分析中最根本的要素。
Authority refers to the right to exercise power based on consent, tradition, or law rather than raw coercion. Max Weber identified three types: traditional, charismatic, and legal-rational authority, the latter being the bedrock of modern states.
权威 指的是基于同意、传统或法律而非纯粹强制力而行使权力的权利。马克斯·韦伯界定了三种类型：传统型、魅力型与法理型权威，其中法理型是现代国家的基石。
Legitimacy is the belief among citizens that a government has the right to rule. Legitimate rule is typically grounded in free elections, the rule of law, and constitutional frameworks, transforming raw power into accepted governance.
合法性 是公民对政府统治权利的信服。合法的统治通常建立在自由选举、法治和宪制框架之上，将赤裸裸的权力转化为被认可的治理。
Sovereignty denotes supreme legal authority within a defined territory. In the UK context, parliamentary sovereignty means that Westminster can make or unmake any law and no other body can override its legislation.
主权 指的是一个界定的领土内的最高法律权威。在英国语境下，议会主权意味着威斯敏斯特议会可以制定或废除任何法律，任何其他机构均不可凌驾其立法之上。
2. Key Political Ideologies | 关键政治意识形态
Liberalism champions individual freedom, limited government, and equal rights. Classical liberals emphasised minimal state intervention, while modern liberals accept an enabling state to promote social justice and positive freedom.
自由主义 倡导个人自由、有限政府与平等权利。古典自由主义者强调国家干预最小化，而现代自由主义者则接受一个赋能型国家以促进社会正义和积极自由。
Conservatism values tradition, social stability, and gradual change. It is sceptical of abstract theories and human perfectibility, preferring organic community, authority, and property rights. One-nation conservatism tempers this with a paternalistic duty to the poor.
保守主义 重视传统、社会稳定和渐进式变革。它怀疑抽象理论与人性完善的可能性，更青睐有机社区、权威和财产权。单一民族保守主义则以对贫者的父爱式责任调和上述立场。
Socialism prioritises social equality, common ownership, and cooperation over capitalist competition. Social democrats seek reformed capitalism through welfare and redistribution, while Marxists advocate the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a classless society.
社会主义 将社会平等、公有制和合作置于资本主义竞争之上。社会民主主义者通过福利和再分配寻求改良资本主义，而马克思主义者主张革命性地推翻资本主义，建立无阶级社会。
Feminism examines how patriarchy structures power relations between men and women. Liberal feminists campaign for legal and political equality; radical feminists argue that the personal is political and seek fundamental transformation of patriarchal institutions.
女性主义 审视父权制如何塑造男性与女性之间的权力关系。自由派女性主义者争取法律与政治平等；激进女性主义者则认为个人即政治，并寻求对父权制度的根本性改造。
3. Democracy and Political Participation | 民主与政治参与
Direct democracy enables citizens to make policy decisions themselves rather than through representatives. Mechanisms include referendums, citizens' assemblies, and initiatives, which can increase legitimacy but risk tyranny of the majority.
直接民主 使公民能够直接作出政策决定，而非通过代表。其机制包括全民公投、公民大会和创制权，这可以提高合法性，但也存在多数暴政的风险。
Representative democracy is a system in which citizens elect representatives to make decisions on their behalf. It relies on free, fair elections and accountable institutions, striking a balance between popular control and effective governance.
代议制民主 是一种公民选举代表代为决策的制度。它依赖于自由、公平的选举和可问责的机构，在民众控制与有效治理之间取得平衡。
Referendum is a direct vote on a single issue, often used to resolve constitutional questions. In the UK, the 2016 EU membership referendum demonstrated both the mobilising potential and the divisive consequences of popular consultation.
全民公投 是针对单一议题的直接投票，常用于解决宪制问题。在英国，2016 年欧盟成员资格公投既展示了民众咨询的动员潜力，也暴露了其分裂后果。
Pressure groups are organised bodies that seek to influence government policy without seeking elected office. Insider groups work closely with ministers, while outsider groups use publicity and direct action; both can enhance pluralist representation.
压力团体 是有组织的机构，旨在影响政府政策但不寻求民选职位。圈内团体与部长密切合作，圈外团体则利用舆论和直接行动；两者都能增强多元主义代表功能。
4. The British Constitution | 英国宪法
Uncodified constitution means the rules of the political system are found in multiple sources rather than a single sovereign document. The UK constitution draws upon statute law, common law, conventions, and authoritative works, making it flexible but sometimes ambiguous.
不成文宪法 意指政治体系的规则源自多重来源而非单一的根本文件。英国宪法倚仗成文法、普通法、惯例和权威著作，使其灵活但有时模糊不清。
Parliamentary sovereignty holds that Parliament is the supreme legal authority, capable of enacting, amending, or repealing any law. No parliament can bind its successors, and legislation cannot be struck down by courts—a principle now complicated by EU membership and devolution.
议会主权 认为议会是最高法律权威，有能力制定、修订或废除任何法律。议会不能约束其后继者，且立法不能被法院推翻——这一原则现已因欧盟成员资格和权力下放而变得复杂。
Rule of law insists that all individuals and institutions, including the government, are subject to and accountable under the law. A.V. Dicey’s formulation emphasised equality before the law, due process, and the protection of individual rights through ordinary remedies.
法治 坚持所有个人和机构（包括政府）都受制于法律并依其承担法律责任。戴雪的理论强调法律面前人人平等、正当程序，以及通过普通救济保护个人权利。
Constitutional conventions are non-legal rules that are binding in practice. For example, the monarch appoints the leader of the majority party as Prime Minister and royal assent is never refused. Breaching a convention can provoke a constitutional crisis.
宪法惯例 是虽不属法律规则但在实践中具有约束力的规范。例如，君主任命多数党领袖为首相，且御准从未被拒绝。违反惯例可能引发宪制危机。
5. Parliament and Law-Making | 议会与立法
House of Commons is the democratically elected chamber and the primary legislative engine. Its members (MPs) debate and scrutinise legislation, hold the government to account through Prime Minister’s Questions and select committees, and approve public spending.
下议院 是经民主选举产生的议院，也是主要的立法驱动力。其议员辩论和审查立法，通过首相质询和特别委员会问责政府，并批准公共开支。
House of Lords is the unelected, revising chamber composed of life peers, hereditary peers, and bishops. It examines bills in detail and can delay but not permanently block legislation passed by the Commons, acting as a constitutional safety valve.
上议院 是非经选举的修正院，由终身贵族、世袭贵族和主教组成。它详细审查议案，可以延迟但无法永久阻止下议院通过的法案，发挥着宪制安全阀的作用。
Public Bill Committees scrutinise proposed legislation line by line. Membership reflects party strength in the Commons, allowing detailed examination that is often adversarial and increasingly accompanied by evidence-gathering sessions.
公法案委员会 对拟议立法逐条审查。其成员构成反映下议院的政党实力，允许进行通常是对抗性的详细审议，并越来越多地辅以证据收集听证会。
Select committees monitor individual government departments and major policy areas. They conduct inquiries, call witnesses, and publish reports; their influence has grown significantly as their recommendations inform public debate and sometimes government U-turns.
特别委员会 监督各政府部门和主要政策领域。它们开展调查、传唤证人并发布报告；随着其建议影响公共辩论甚至导致政府政策转向，其影响力已显著增长。
6. The Executive Branch | 行政机构
Prime Minister is the head of the UK government, exercising significant powers including appointing ministers, setting the cabinet agenda, and directing national security. Patronage, prerogative powers, and party leadership combine to centralise authority.
首相 是英国政府首脑，行使着包括任命大臣、设定内阁议程和指挥国家安全在内的重大权力。恩赐权、特权与政党领导权的结合使权威集中化。
Cabinet comprises the most senior ministers, chaired by the Prime Minister, and collectively formulates policy. The convention of collective ministerial responsibility requires ministers to publicly support cabinet decisions or resign, preserving government unity.
内阁 由最资深的大臣组成，由首相主持，集体制定政策。集体大臣责任制 惯例要求大臣们公开支持内阁决定，否则辞职，以此维护政府团结。
Individual ministerial responsibility holds that ministers are answerable to Parliament for their own conduct and the performance of their departments. Serious operational failures or political misjudgements are expected to trigger resignation, though this norm has weakened in practice.
个人大臣责任制 认为大臣需就其自身行为及部门的运作向议会负责。重大运作失误或政治错误理应导致辞职，尽管这一规范在实践中已经弱化。
Royal prerogative refers to the residual powers once exercised by the monarch that are now effectively used by ministers. They include declaring war, dissolving Parliament, and granting honours—powers exercised without direct parliamentary approval but subject to convention and judicial review.
王室特权 指曾经由君主行使的剩余权力，现实际上由大臣运用。其包括宣战、解散议会和授予荣誉——这些权力无需议会直接批准，但受惯例和司法审查制约。
7. Judiciary and Civil Liberties | 司法与公民自由
Judicial review allows courts to examine the lawfulness of decisions made by public bodies. Judges cannot strike down primary legislation under UK’s parliamentary sovereignty, but they can quash secondary legislation and administrative actions that exceed legal authority.
司法审查 允许法院审查公共机构决定的合法性。法官在英国议会主权下不可推翻初级立法，但可以撤销超越法定权限的次级立法和行政行为。
Human Rights Act 1998 incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law. It requires public authorities to act compatibly with Convention rights and empowers courts to issue declarations of incompatibility, which exert strong political pressure for legislative change.
1998 年《人权法》 将《欧洲人权公约》纳入英国国内法。它要求公共机关以符合公约权利的方式行事，并授权法院发出抵触声明，此举对立法修改施加了强大的政治压力。
Civil liberties are fundamental freedoms that require protection from state interference. In the UK, liberty is traditionally a residual concept—everything is permitted save what is prohibited—but counter-terror legislation and public order laws have eroded this presumption.
公民自由 是需要保护免受国家干涉的基本自由。在英国，自由传统上是一种剩余概念——凡未明文禁止者皆被允许——但反恐立法和公共秩序法已侵蚀了这一预设。
Separation of powers in the UK is partial, blending executive and legislative branches. The 2005 Constitutional Reform Act enhanced judicial independence by creating a Supreme Court separate from the House of Lords, reducing the Lord Chancellor’s judicial role.
英国的分权 是部分性的，行政与立法分支相互交融。2005 年《宪制改革法》通过创建独立于上议院的最高法院、削弱大法官的司法角色，加强了司法独立。
8. Elections and Electoral Systems | 选举与选举制度
First-past-the-post (FPTP) awards victory to the candidate with the most votes in each constituency. It tends to produce strong single-party government and a clear link between MPs and constituents, but it distorts proportionality and wastes millions of votes.
简单多数制 (FPTP) 将胜利授予各选区得票最多的候选人。它倾向于产生强大的单一政党政府和议员与选民之间的清晰联系，但会扭曲比例性并浪费数百万选票。
Proportional representation (PR) seeks to match the share of seats to the share of votes won. Variants like the Single Transferable Vote (STV) and Additional Member System (AMS) are used in devolved parliaments, yielding multi-party outcomes and coalition governments.
比例代表制 (PR) 力求将席位份额与得票份额相匹配。单一可转让投票制 (STV) 和附加入席制 (AMS) 等变体被用于权力下放后的议会，产生了多党结果和联合政府。
Voting behaviour models analyse how electors choose. Class alignment once predicted that working-class voters chose Labour and middle-class voters chose Conservatives; partisan dealignment describes the weakening of this link, replaced by short-term factors like issue voting and leadership image.
投票行为 模型分析选民如何选择。阶级联盟 曾预测工人阶级选民支持工党、中产阶级选民支持保守党；政党疏离 则描述这种联系的弱化，取而代之的是议题投票和领袖形象等短期因素。
Swing measures the transfer of voter support between parties from one election to another. It is calculated by averaging the percentage-point fall in one major party's vote and the rise in the other’s, a crucial concept for predicting constituency results.
摇摆度 衡量选民支持在不同选举之间从一党转向另一党的幅度。计算方式是将一个主要政党得票率下降的百分点与另一政党上升的百分点取平均值，这是预测选区结果的关键概念。
9. Political Parties and Party Systems | 政党与政党体系
Two-party system describes a regime where two major parties compete for power and other parties achieve only marginal representation. While the UK has long exhibited this at Westminster, devolution and the rise of the SNP, Liberal Democrats, and others have pluralised the party landscape.
两党制 描述了一种两个主要政党争夺权力、其他政党只获得边缘代表的体制。尽管威斯敏斯特长期呈现此态，权力下放以及苏格兰民族党、自由民主党等的崛起已使政党版图趋于多元。
Party manifesto is a published declaration of policies a party pledges to implement if elected. By the mandate theory, the winning party claims the right to enact its manifesto, and the Salisbury Convention ensures the Lords will not block manifesto bills at second reading.
政党宣言 是公之于众的、承诺若当选将实施的政策声明。根据授权理论，胜选政党声言有权推行其宣言，而索尔兹伯里惯例确保上议院不会在二读时阻挠宣言中的法案。
Left–right spectrum positions parties according to their economic and social policies. Left-wing parties typically favour state intervention, redistribution, and welfare expansion; right-wing parties incline towards free markets, lower taxation, and traditional moral values.
左–右光谱 根据经济和社会政策为政党定位。左翼政党通常支持国家干预、再分配和扩大福利；右翼政党倾向于自由市场、降低税收和传统道德价值观。
Minor and single-issue parties may never win seats but influence mainstream agendas. UKIP’s pressure on the Conservative right over EU membership and the Green Party’s injection of environmentalism into mainstream discourse illustrate their agenda-setting function.
小党和单一议题政党 可能从未赢得席位，却能影响主流议程。英国独立党对保守党右翼在欧盟成员资格问题上的压力、以及绿党将环保主义注入主流话语，都展示了它们的议程设置功能。
10. US Politics Essentials | 美国政治精要
Separation of powers divides the federal government into three branches: Congress (legislative), President (executive), and Supreme Court (judicial). Each branch derives its own political mandate, and the Constitution assigns them distinct functions to prevent the concentration of power.
三权分立 将联邦政府分为三个分支：国会（立法）、总统（行政）和最高法院（司法）。每一分支都有各自的政治授权，宪法赋予它们不同的职能，以防权力集中。
Checks and balances enable each branch to limit the others. Congress can override presidential vetoes and confirm cabinet appointments; the President can veto laws; the courts can declare statutes unconstitutional—ensuring mutual accountability.
制衡 使每一分支得以制约其他分支。国会可以推翻总统否决并确认内阁任命；总统可否决法律；法院可宣布法令违宪——保证了相互问责。
Federalism divides sovereignty between national and state governments. The US Constitution reserves powers not delegated to the federal government to the states, producing variation in policies such as education and criminal law, and constant negotiation over jurisdictional boundaries.
联邦制 将主权在联邦政府与州政府之间分割。美国宪法将未授予联邦的权力保留给各州，导致教育、刑法等政策的差异，以及对管辖边界的持续博弈。
Electoral College indirectly elects the President, with each state receiving electors equal to its total congressional delegation. A candidate must win a majority of 538 electoral votes; this can result in a president who loses the nationwide popular vote, as in 2016.
选举人团 间接选举总统，每州获得的选举人票数等于其国会代表团总人数。候选人须赢得 538 张选举人票的多数；这可能导致普选票输方的候选人当选总统，如 2016 年。
Congress comprises the House of Representatives (proportional to population) and the Senate (equal representation per state). Its powers include law-making, oversight, and the power of the purse, but gridlock between the two chambers can stall legislation.
国会 由众议院（按人口比例）和参议院（每州平等代表）组成。其权力包括立法、监督和财政拨款权，但两院之间的僵局可能导致立法停滞。
11. Devolution and Multilevel Governance | 权力下放与多层次治理
Devolution transfers certain legislative and executive powers from Westminster to elected bodies in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It is asymmetric, meaning each settlement differs in scope, but it does not constitute federalism because Westminster retains ultimate sovereignty.
权力下放 将部分立法与行政权力由威斯敏斯特转移至苏格兰、威尔士及北爱尔兰的民选机构。它是不对称的，各自权限范围不同，但并不构成联邦制，因为威斯敏斯特保留最终主权。
Devolved powers typically include health, education, transport, and local government. Reserved powers, such as defence, foreign policy, and monetary policy, remain with the UK Parliament, creating a quasi-federal tier of government known as 'Westminster-and-devolved' governance.
下放权力 通常包括卫生、教育、交通和地方政府。保留权力 如国防、外交和货币政策则仍属英国议会，形成了被称为“威斯敏斯特与权力下放机构”的准联邦层级。
English votes for English laws was a procedure introduced to answer the West Lothian Question—why Scottish MPs could vote on matters affecting only England. It required a grand committee of English MPs to consent to England-only legislation, but was discontinued in 2021.
英格兰人的票决英格兰法律 是为回应西洛锡安问题——为何苏格兰议员可对仅影响英格兰的事务投票——而引入的程序。它要求一个英格兰议员大委员会同意仅涉英格兰的法案，但于 2021 年废止。
12. Key Thinkers and Their Ideas | 关键思想家与其思想
Thomas Hobbes argued that in a 'state of nature' life is solitary, poor, and brutish. To escape anarchy, individuals consent to an absolute sovereign through a social contract; security is the supreme political value underpinning his Leviathan.
托马斯·霍布斯 认为，在“自然状态”下，人生是孤独、贫穷且粗野的。为摆脱无政府状态，个体通过社会契约同意建立一个绝对主权者；安全是其《利维坦》中至高的政治价值。
John Locke championed natural rights to life, liberty, and property. He argued government must be based on the consent of the governed and could be overthrown if it violates those rights, profoundly influencing liberal constitutionalism and the American founding.
约翰·洛克 倡导生命、自由和财产的自然权利。他主张政府必须以被统治者的同意为基础，若侵犯这些权利即可被推翻，深刻影响了自由宪政主义和美国建国。
Karl Marx viewed history as a class struggle between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. He predicted capitalism's inevitable collapse and the emergence of a communist society without class or state, driven by the revolutionary transformation of economic relationships.
卡尔·马克思 将历史视为资产阶级与无产阶级之间的阶级斗争。他预言资本主义将不可避免地崩溃，并通过经济关系的革命改造，催生一个无阶级、无国家的共产主义社会。
John Rawls revived social contract theory with his 'veil of ignorance'. Individuals deprived of knowledge of their own position would choose principles of justice ensuring equal basic liberties and that inequalities benefit the least advantaged—the difference principle.
约翰·罗尔斯 以“无知之幕”重振社会契约论。在不知自身处境的情形下，个体将选择确保平等基本自由、且不平等必须有利于最弱势者的正义原则——即差异原则。
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