The absolute majority

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motico

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Please, check if the following passage is grammatically correct. Thanks!
 
Altogether, the Palestinians constitute the absolute majority of Jordan's population. Although this majority is estimated at 70%, the Jordanian official claim is that the Palestinians do not exceed 30%. The Jordanian regime's main task has always been uniting between the two central elements of the population – the Bedouins and the Palestinians. In the recent years this task has won the label: "Jordan first", that is, all the residents of Jordan should adopt the Jordanian common and political identity and bridge the cultural and traditional gaps between them. Yet, whereas the King and his loyalists speak about a "holy unity", the Palestinians express their resentment of being marginalized. This feeling of theirs stems from the fact that the positions of power are usually in the hands of the Bedouins, while the Palestinians are barred from playing a significant role in the government. Therefore, they constitute the private- economic sector. The Palestinians largely occupy positions such as merchants, contractors, liberal professions or academics, while the Bedouins hold senior positions in the army, police and the security services.
 

SoothingDave

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I'm not sure what you mean by "absolute majority."
 

Odessa Dawn

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***NOT A TEACHER***


Will you differentiate between regime and government? To my best knowledge, government represents the people while regime is a corrupt political system.


 

5jj

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Will you differentiate between regime and government? To my best knowledge, government represents the people while regime is a corrupt political system.
Whether or not a regime is corrupt rather depends on who is reporting.
 

motico

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I'm not sure what you mean by "absolute majority."
I would like to clarify that this is a translated passage. It is neither intended to express a political opinion nor start a political discussion. I'm just interested in the language.
The author of the article stated "absolute majority". You may, of course, disagree and come up with a contradictory estimate. But, as I said, this is not the point of my post.
 

riquecohen

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I would like to clarify that this is a translated passage. It is neither intended to express a political opinion nor start a political discussion. I'm just interested in the language.
The author of the article stated "absolute majority". You may, of course, disagree and come up with a contradictory estimate. But, as I said, this is not the point of my post.

I haven't seen anyone try to start a political discussion. Having said that, it seems to me that a majority is 50% plus one, and this is the same as an "absolute majority." It is, in my opinion, unnecessary to add "absolute." There is a term that I've rarely heard used, "relative majority", which isn't really a majority. In AmE. we'd call this a "plurality."
 

SoothingDave

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I would interpret an "absolute" majority as being 100 percent with no exceptions.
 

motico

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I would interpret an "absolute" majority as being 100 percent with no exceptions.

Thank you for shedding light on your remark. I wrongly thought things were going toward an unwanted direction… As for an "absolute majority," you may refer (for example) to Oxford Advanced Lerner's Dictionary:
 
absolute majority - Definition and pronunciation | Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com
 
"More than half of the total number of votes or winning candidates." More than half is not necessarily 100 percent.
 

SoothingDave

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Thank you for shedding light on your remark. I wrongly thought things were going toward an unwanted direction… As for an "absolute majority," you may refer (for example) to Oxford Advanced Lerner's Dictionary:
 
absolute majority - Definition and pronunciation | Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com
 
"More than half of the total number of votes or winning candidates." More than half is not necessarily 100 percent.

Interesting. I've never encountered this. In America a "majority" is by definition over 50%, so there is no need to qualify a majority with "absolute." Apparently, in Britain, they call a "plurality" a "majority" at times, even if the "winning" vote-getter is below 50%.
 

SoothingDave

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Supermajority - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

absolute majority or majority of the entire membership is a voting basis that requires that more than half of all the members of a body (including those absent and those present but not voting) to vote in favour of a proposition in order for it to be passed.[SUP][2][/SUP] In practical terms, it may mean that abstention from voting is equivalent to a no vote. It may be contrasted with a simple majority which only requires a majority of those actually voting to approve a proposition for it to be enacted.


"Absolute majority" seems to have a specialized meaning in parliamentary terms.
 

Grumpy

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QUOTE=5jj;936860]Whether or not a regime is corrupt rather depends on who is reporting.[/QUOTE]

I very much agree with 5jj's comment. A "regime" is simply a method or system of government - which may actually be a model of rectitude. However in political writing, "regime" has come to be used more and more when referring to corrupt or dictatorial governments, and is now a pejorative term. The author's use of "regime" when referring to the Jordanians [The Jordanian regime's main task], and "government" when talking about Palestinian participation [Palestinians are barred from playing a significant role in the government] gives a clue to his stance in the matter and the message he is attempting to convey.
 
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