Abstain: MSPs might abstain in a vote. This means that they are voting neither for nor against a motion. There is a special button on their desk if they wish to abstain during a vote.

Additional Member System: The voting system used to choose the regional MSPs in the Scottish Parliament.

Bill: a set of proposals that might become a law, if Parliament agrees to it.

Parliamentary Bureau: the group of people who decide what the Parliament will discuss and decide each week.

Civil Servants:People who work for the Government. They are expected to be neutral, in other words not do anything that favours one Party over another.

Clerks: Clerks are people who work for the Parliament. Their job is to organise all the business in the Chamber and in Committees, and to make sure that the MSPs follow all the rules.

Coalition: an arrangement between more than one political party/group. This would usually happen when no party wins more than half of the seats in the Parliament.

Committees: A group of MSPs from different parties. They deal with specialised topics like Health, the Environment, Rural Affairs and Europe.

Constituency:A local area which elects one MSP using the First Past the Post voting system. There are 73 constituencies in Scotland.

Constituency MSPs: These MSPs are elected to represent one particular Constituency, or local area in Scotland. There are 73 of them who are elected using the First Past the Post voting system.

Debate: A discussion (some would say argument!) that takes place between the MSPs in the Debating Chamber of the Parliament. It will often lead to a vote.

Decision Time:The time in the day when MSPs decide about things, using the electronic voting system.

Democracy: This means “rule by the people”, in other words everyone in the country should have a say in what happens and what is decided. In a democratic country there are elections where the people have a free choice on who they want to be in charge, they are entitled to their own opinions, and they have the right to criticise the Government.

Devolution:Where the power to do things moves closer to the people who are affected. The Scottish Parliament was established in 1999 to give Scotland more control over its own affairs. This is an example of devolution.

Devolved Matters: The policy issues that are decided in the Scottish Parliament, such as health, education, housing and the environment.

Electorate: the collective name given to all the people who have the right to vote.

Elections:These are used to pick the people in charge of our country. Everyone over the age of 18 usually gets the chance to vote in an election.

Executive:The most successful party in an election gets to form the Executive, which takes charge of important areas of policy, and puts forward new bills.

Government:This is similar to the Executive, but it might often be used to describe the Government at UK level.

Ideology: An ideology is a set of ideas about how the country should be run. Each Party in the Parliament has its own ideology. This will help them to decide about the policies that they want the Parliament to put into place.

Laws:These are rules deciding what can and can’t be done in a country. If you break the law, you may be punished in some way. The Scottish Parliament can pass laws on devolved matters.

Legislation:the process of making new laws.

Local government: the people who are elected to look after peoples’ interests at local level.

Media:the media is a collective name for newspapers, television, radio, etc.

Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs): the individuals elected to serve and represent the people of Scotland in Parliament. There are 129 MSPs.

Minority Government: A government formed by a party who does not have the support of over half the total number of seats in the Parliament.

Ministers : MSPs who are also members of the Scottish Executive.

Motion:A proposal that is considered by the Parliament or a Committee. A statement or argument that has to be debated and voted upon in the Chamber.

Official Report: This is the official record of everything that is said and decided upon in the Parliament. It is published on the Internet the morning after each session of Parliament. Official Reporters can be seen in the Chamber when the Parliament meets. Their job is to note everything that is said, and then turn it into a readable document!

Parliament: A parliament is a group of elected representatives that debate s and decides upon new laws. You might hear the Scottish Parliament referred to simply as “the Parliament”.

Participation: the idea of “taking part”, in this case, taking part in a democracy. This might be through voting in an election, standing for election, joining a political party, or taking part in a campaign to change something you feel strongly about. The Scottish Parliament is committed to encouraging participation, particularly among young people.

Parties:These are the different groups of people who try to get elected to Parliament. They have their own set of ideas about what they think is most important, and what they want to do if they get elected. The parties that are represented in the Scottish Parliament at the moment are: the Scottish National Party, Labour, the Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrats, and the Green Party.

Petition:a way for a member of the public to let a parliament or government know they would like something to change.The Scottish Parliament has set up a special Public Petitions Committee to deal with them, and accepts petitions by e-mail.

Policies: These are the ideas and proposals that the different parties have for changing things that they don’t like, or improving things they are in favour of.

Presiding Officer: The Presiding Officer makes sure that the business of the Parliament is carried out fairly, on time, within the rules and in an orderly manner. There are also two Deputy Presiding Officers.

Pressure groups: These are organisations that want to change policy. They focus on particular issues. Some examples are Amnesty, Save the Children and Shelter.

Proportional Representation: This is a way of counting the votes in an election. Under proportional representation, the number of MSPs each Party ends up with in the Parliament is closely linked to the percentage of votes they got in the election.

Prospective Parliamentary Candidates: the people who stand for election to Parliament.

Public Gallery:The seats on the balcony of the main Chamber where the public can sit and watch what’s happening.

Recess: This is the time when there is no official parliamentary business, either in the main Chamber or in Committees.Recess is linked to Scottish school holidays.

Referendum: A referendum is held when the Government wants to find out what everybody in the country thinks about a particular subject. In 1997 there was a referendum in Scotland on whether there should be a Scottish Parliament. Most people were in favour, so the UK Parliament passed a law accordingly, and the Scottish Parliament opened on July 1 st 1999.

Region : A larger area which contains a number of smaller constituencies. Scotland is divided into 8 Regions, each with 7 MSPs.

Regional MSPs: These MSPs are elected by a proportional system called the Additional Member System. There are 56 Regional MSPs in the Scottish Parliament. They have the same responsibilities as Constituency MSPs, although they cover a larger area. They are sometimes called “list members” as they are elected from a political party list for that region.

Representation: the idea of acting on behalf of someone else. For example, MSPs represent their constituents (the people living in the area where they were elected from). They do this in many different ways, such as holding surgeries in their constituencies where people can raise problems with them, they can ask questions in Parliament, and might even propose new laws to change things. They are expected to represent everyone in their constituency, whether or not the constituent voted for them at the election.

Reserved matters: The policy issues that are still decided at UK level (in “ Westminster ”), such as Defence, Foreign Affairs, Employment Law, and Social Security.

Rights and responsibilities: In a democracy, everyone has rights (things you are free to do) and responsibilities (things you are expected to do), e.g. you have the right to vote in an election, but you have the responsibility to accept the choice of the majority; you have the right to drive a car, but you have the responsibility to pass a test first.

Scottish Parliament: The Scottish Parliament met again, for the first time in nearly 300 years, in May 1999. It is responsible for making new laws that will affect the people of Scotland.

Scrutinise: When MSPs question the work of the Executive. They also scrutinise each bill going through Parliament by looking at them in detail.

Selection Process: the route that people take if they want to become a candidate for election. The process differs between parties.

Tax:The Government takes tax from working people in order to pay for all the services it provides, such as hospitals, schools, social security, defence, etc. The Scottish Parliament has the right to increase or decrease the basic rate of tax in Scotland by 3%.

Voter turnout: the number of people who actually vote on the day of the election. This is usually expressed as a percentage of the electorate – e.g. 52% of the electorate voted in the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections.

Westminster :“ Westminster” is often used to refer to the UK Government. Westminster is the part of London where you’ll find the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the main Government buildings.