The word "fraction" comes from the Latin fractio, meaning "refraction", "fragmentation". In modern Russian, it corresponds to the concept of "isolated part of the whole." In politics, the word faction denotes an association of parliamentarians or a grouping within a party that defends their views. In physics and chemistry, a fraction is a part of a liquid or bulk substance isolated according to certain criteria.
When the word appeared in Russian
The word "faction" has penetrated into the Russian language, according to the "Historical and Etymological Dictionary" edited by P. Ya. Chernykh, in the sixties of the nineteenth century. For the first time it was recorded in the "Dictionary of 25 thousand foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language, with the meaning of their roots", published by AD Michelson in 1865.
The word entered mass use much later. Academician Afanasy Selishchev in his work "Language and Revolution" wrote that the revolutionaries, being intellectuals, when discussing issues of public and political life, introduced into speech many terms that had previously had limited circulation.
These terms, used earlier among philosophers, politicians, economists, sociologists and other scribes, often had a foreign origin. Similarly, in the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary era, the words "agrarian" and "agrarian", "strike" and "strike", "boycott" and "boycott", "rally" and "rally", and many other words got into the Russian language … Among dozens of such words, Academician Selishchev names the word "faction".
Political factions
In politics, the term "faction" refers to a group of people united by common views within a framework within a larger structure. In essence, a faction is a "party within a party." Usually a faction has its own structural organization and a relatively stable composition of the organization. Thus, the Italian Christian Democratic Party and the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party are coalitions of several factions.
Factions vie among themselves for leadership in the party. Political currents are in many ways similar to factions. But unlike the factions, the currents do not have a structural organization.
In our country, the concept of fraction is most often associated with deputy groups within the State Duma. Parliamentary factions unite deputies from one or several parties to pursue a single political line. The rules for creating factions are regulated by the regulations of the representative body of power.
In the Russian parliament, factions have the right to be represented in the governing bodies. As a rule, a representative of a faction holds the position of Deputy Chairman of the State Duma. In the State Dumas of several previous convocations, the positions of chairmen of parliamentary committees were also distributed between factions.