ABSTRACT
The use of political terms has been subject in recent times to an appalling degree of confusion and inflation. The confusion is perhaps inherent in the subject itself, but the inflation—the incessant use and abuse of certain words in different contexts until they have as much lost meaning as paper money printed in excessive quantities has lost value—is man-made, and has gone so far that it cannot now be reversed. Thus if we are now to discuss forms of government, we must try to define our meaning. It should be understood that we are not claiming that the use we shall give here to various well-known words is the only possible use, or that it is in any sense the ‘correct’ use: there can in fact be no correct use after so much confusion and inflation. We are merely seeking to use words in a consistent manner, and one which will make intelligible our examination of political systems, and especially of totalitarian régimes.
