I think it's a term that comes out of Poli Sci. If so, it'd come naturally to our friendly neighborhood interviewer...who also, one notes, equates having a degree in Poli Sci with "buying into" at least a certain amount of Chomsky. A strange assertion, regardless of your politics. I got the distinct impression, though, that he was getting a little defensive by that point.

A lawyer friend of mine used the term occasionally while talking politics, but applied it to nations without restriction. I think it is indeed intended to imply a lack of permanence, not necessarily in a derogatory manner, but simply as a nod of sorts to the notion that this whole government thing is really just another aspect of humanity's attempts to feel its way through the dark.