Word: lowered
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...since the return of democracy to Spain in the late '70s, the Communist Party has been on the skids. It captured 23 seats in the 1979 election, but in last month's voting the party, in partnership with a leftist coalition, placed just seven members in the 350-seat lower house of the Cortes. Only Portugal's Communist Party, which never abandoned its allegiance to Moscow, seems to remain strong, consistently hovering around the 19% mark in elections...
...another step in its long march toward a market economy last week. Signaling its desire to become a full-fledged member of the world economic community, Peking officially announced that it would seek to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the 91-nation group that works to lower trade barriers and sets the rules of international commerce. Western companies eager to crack the vast Chinese market are delighted. Says Bruce Vernor, executive vice president of the National Council for U.S.-China Trade, a group of 400 American firms: "We certainly believe this is another indication of China...
...replicating the guts of the IBM machine and offering it at a lower price, the compatibles have ushered in an era in which personal computers are commodities that are differentiated not by quality but by price. Indeed, true bargain hunters can even buy so-called clones, which are ultracheap compatibles that lack the service and repair guarantees that higher-priced units offer. In the past 18 months or so, many former customers of IBM have decided that they do not need to buy high-priced machines when more affordable compatibles or clones will suffice. Says Michael Geran, a computer-industry...
...behind him, at least for the moment, the worst of his problems. Moreover, the vote set records: the extent of the Liberal Democratic victory was unprecedented in the party's 31 years of continuous rule. The L.D.P. candidates won a majority of 304 out of 512 seats in the lower house of parliament, an increase of more than 50, while the smaller opposition parties suffered setback after setback. In the upper house too the L.D.P. gained eleven seats, giving it a total of 142 in the 252-member chamber...
...sought out Japanese voters from the northernmost island of Hokkaido to the southernmost archipelago of Okinawa. Outflanked and unprepared for the L.D.P. onslaught, the opposition got off to a slow start and never recovered. The Socialists, long the ruling party's most serious adversary, lost 25 seats in the lower house, bringing their total down to 86. The moderate Democratic Socialists did not fare much better, dropping sharply, from 37 seats to 26. The centrist, Buddhist-oriented Clean Government Party did slightly better, losing only two of its 59 seats. Commented Tokyo Political Analyst Takayoshi Miyagawa: "It is more accurate...