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meaning in context - Difference between "voters", "electorates" and "constituents"


I'm reading an English text about politics, and in one paragraph I found "voters," "electorates" and "constituents." Now I would like to know if they are absolutely the same, or if they have slightly different meanings. Here is the whole paragraph: enter image description here Any help is appreciated



Answer



"Voters" are the people who vote (or more generally, those who are entitled to vote, whether they do so or not).


"Electorate" is usually a mass noun meaning "the collection of all voters". The use of the plural in your quotation I find rather strange and can only interpret it as "the collections of voters in different countries or polities" - its plural form occurring only because this is a general text talking about different countries.


"Constituents" are the people represented by a politician. I would use it to mean all those represented, whether they are voters or not, but there is room for some argument there. In most places "constituents" are a geographically defined group, but they could be, for example, the members of a profession if some body were organised to have representatives of professions.


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