M: Clode's Political Dictionary
“Manifesto” This is a left-wing word for a party policy “platform.” This term is most closely associated with the Communist movement, as exemplified in the book “A Communist Manifesto” by Marx and Engels. However many other social democrat parties also use the term “Manifesto”.
“Marginal Seat” A “marginal” is an electorate with a very small majority for its holder, usually defined as held by less than a 5% margin. In general elections, the major parties focus most of their resources, volunteers and advertising in the marginal seats. Other seats are classified as “safe seats”, because the sitting politicians hold them by comfortable majorities.
“Matching Funds” Matching funds are public money given to candidates in amounts that are equal to funds which they raise privately from individuals. There may be limits to the amount of matching funds which can be received for each individual contribution.
“Media Monitoring” This is the practice of extracting politically useful quotes by recording and transcribing any electronic media broadcasts, plus sorting and filing print media stories. Media monitoring is mainly used by political parties to record quotes from opponents which can later be used against the opponents. Parties tend to operate their own monitoring operations during election campaigns. Between elections, it is more common to rely on a commercial media monitoring organisation, for a supply of “transcripts” from the electronic media and “clippings” from the print media.
“Mid-term election” This term can have different meanings, depending on the country where it is used. In the United States, midterm elections are contests for Congressional seats, state seats and local government officials which occur in the middle of a presidential term of office. In other words, there is no Presidential election during the midterm elections, because the President is only halfway through the four-year presidential term. The results are sometimes interpreted as a popular referendum on that President’s performance for the first two years of his term. In other countries, a “mid-term election” refers usually to a by-election in a single electorate in the middle of a parliamentary term. (See by-election)