parapolitics

parapolitics noun: political practices and arrangements that are unacknowledged and that intend to misinform or obfuscate a hidden agenda.

Noun (1)

parapolitics (uncountable)

Political practices and arrangements that are unacknowledged and that intend to misinform or obfuscate a hidden agenda.

parapolitics (uncountable)

Collusion or collaboration between politicians and paramilitary groups (referring to the 2006 Colombian parapolitics scandal).
- And parapolitics risks weakening Mr [Álvaro] Uribe's grip on Congress. A tax reform that would have raised government revenues has been watered down.2007 March 22, “The perils of "parapolitics"”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Mar 2023
- Domestically President [Álvaro] Uribe enjoys an 84% approval rating. Most Colombians support him for bringing the country from the brink of becoming a failed state and though the parapolitics scandal is important, "the sense of regaining control trumps everything," said [Michael] Shifter.2008 April 23, Sibylla Brodzinsky, “Colombia's 'parapolitics' scandal casts shadow over president”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 01 Sep...

From para- + politics.

Borrowed from Spanish parapolítica, from paramilitar (“paramilitary”) + política (“politics”).

What does parapolitics mean?: Parapolitics means political practices and arrangements that are unacknowledged and that intend to misinform or obfuscate a hidden agenda.
What part of speech is parapolitics?: Parapolitics is a noun.

Adapted from Wiktionary: parapolitics (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “parapolitics.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/parapolitics. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.