The MacMillan Dictionary defines the verb “attribute” as the act of believing or saying that something was written, said, painted, etc. by a particular person.
Why this is important: One the fundamental advantages of republican democracy is that citizens may hold their legislators, key executives, and political parties accountable through elections. Doing so requires some opinion or knowledge of how elected officials and their parties have impacted our lives.
Few people are so powerful that they alone are responsible for any specific event in your life. Sometimes people are not to blame at all. Some outcomes are simply acts of nature and God. Often, outcomes result from decisions made by many people within a single political party or from more than one party. In our Republic, most policy outcomes result from interactions between citizens and their lobbyists, multiple layers of government, and multiple actors within each layer.
« Back to Glossary Index