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Politics & Statecraft

Watergate, Iron Curtain, witch hunt — the historical shorthand the news cycle reaches for whenever a scandal breaks or a regime tightens its grip.

8 entries

A publicly declared limit that, if crossed, will provoke a serious response.

The original modern political scandal — and the suffix '-gate' now appended to every successor.

A public campaign that punishes people on the basis of suspicion or panic rather than evidence.

Drawing electoral districts in bizarre shapes to favor one party.

The closed border that divided communist Eastern Europe from the West during the Cold War.

Public accusations of disloyalty or subversion without solid evidence.

A decision to appease an aggressor that's likely to come back as a worse crisis.

Politics conducted on the basis of pragmatic interests rather than morals or ideology.