I have stopped using the terms CE and SE for a while now. I would appreciate it if everyone else did too. I will no longer reply to any post that contains these abbreviations.
I shall offer some synonyms that are more accurate, more descriptive, and less elitist.
CE
Cottages
FEUSS (Free Emancipation Universal Suffrage Speech)
Kremlin
Commerce City
Towns
SE
Specialists
PARCS (PAcifism Representation Caste System)
Pyramids
GP Farm
Settled Specialists
Bulbing
Thank you for your attention.
Rebuilding CE and SE using Dave's criteria:
CE
-Primarily gaining beakers from working
cottages which produce commerce that is changed into beakers through the science slider.
-The goal is to designate multiple strong
commerce cities with the goal of growing as many
cottages into
towns as soon as possible since cottages are a weak improvement, but towns are a strong improvement.
-Around mid-game the appropriate CE civics become available (
FEUSS). FS and FR (liberalism) and emancipation/universal sufferage (democracy). Emancipation helps grow
cottages into
towns. FS and US only benefit
towns.
-In addition to having designated production cities, a CE will benefit from rush-buying under US late in the game. This is enhanced by the
Kremlin.
-A CE will typically rely on a single
gpfarm for running
specialists. A player relying heavily on a CE can use the resulting great people in many of the same ways as a SE player will use them, including
settled specialists and
bulbing.
SE
-Primarily gaining beakers from
specialists. This will involve the base beakers (as well as gold and/or production in some cases) generated from working the
specialists, which can be enhanced through early representation from
the pyramids. However, it will also include
bulbing or
settling the resulting great people.
-A SE particularly benefits early from its corresponding civics (
PARCS) being available earlier than the CE civics (
FEUSS). Of course, a CE player may also take advantage of
PARCS prior to switching into
PARCS; however, a SE player will look to take advantage of
PARCS, usually in cycles with military civics, throughout the game (unless they transition to a CE mid-game and beyond).
-A SE can rely heavily on
cycling between periods of teching and periods of warmongering, making use of appropriate civics in each case.
-A FE (food economy) is largely the base of a SE with farms being littered empire-wide. This provides the ability to run max specialists off of surplus food during peacetime, as well as whipping/drafting with fast regrowth during wartime.
-The slider is largely empty for the SE. In a CE the science slider tends to stay as high as possible game-long. In contrast, the science slider--although it can help--can be lowered in favour of raising the luxury slider to offset unhappiness. In contrast to the CE, the SE can do this while also keeping research rates high through working
specialists.
Disclaimer #1: Playing the map is best in all cases. A CE tends to coincide with grasslands, snaky rivers, and so forth. A SE tends to coincide with high levels of surplus food specials.
Disclaimer #2: A hybrid of both styles tends to be optimal in many cases. This can also involve transitioning from one to the other over the course of a game.
Disclaimer #3: CE and SE should be understood as "fuzzy" concepts with many different tweaks and variations depending on specific map situations and players' preferences and inclinations.
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primarily comes from is determining your economy. Honestly this works for other "economies" too ... think TRE, EE, RE. Seems like the right designator since plenty of SE's can get their 
from cottages and plenty of CE's get their 
