Government

A government is the system by which a state or community is governed. In the Commonwealth of Nations, the word government is also used more narrowly to refer to the collective group of people that exercises executive authority in a state. This usage is analogous to what is called an "administration" in American English. Furthermore, government is occasionally used in English as a synonym for governance.

In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislators, administrators, and arbitrators. Government is the means by which state policy is enforced, as well as the mechanism for determining the policy of the state. A form of government, or form of state governance, refers to the set of political systems and institutions that make up the organisation of a specific government.

Government of any kind currently affects every human activity in many important ways. For this reason, political scientists generally argue that government should not be studied by itself; but should be studied along with anthropology, economics, environmentalism, history, philosophy, science, and sociology.

Political science

Classifying government

In political science, it has long been a goal to create a typology or taxonomy of polities, as typologies of political systems are not obvious. It is especially important in the political science fields of comparative politics and international relations.

On the surface, identifying a form of government appears to be easy, as all governments have an official form. The United States is a federal republic, while the former Soviet Union was a socialist republic. However self-identification is not objective, and as Kopstein and Lichbach argue, defining regimes can be tricky. For example, elections are a defining characteristic of a democracy, but in practice elections in the former Soviet Union were not "free and fair" and took place in a single party state. Thus in many practical classifications it would not be considered democratic.

Identifying a form of government is also difficult because a large number of political systems originate as socio-economic movements and are then carried into governments by specific parties naming themselves after those movements; all with competing political-ideologies. Experience with those movements in power, and the strong ties they may have to particular forms of government, can cause them to be considered as forms of government in themselves.

Other complications include general non-consensus or deliberate "distortion or bias" of reasonable technical definitions to political ideologies and associated forms of governing, due to the nature of politics in the modern era. For example: The meaning of "conservatism" in the United States has little in common with the way the word's definition is used elsewhere. As Ribuffo (2011) notes, "what Americans now call conservatism much of the world calls liberalism or neoliberalism". Since the 1950s conservatism in the United States has been chiefly associated with the Republican Party. However, during the era of segregation many Southern Democrats were conservatives, and they played a key role in the Conservative Coalition that controlled Congress from 1937 to 1963.

Every country in the world is ruled by a system of governance that combines at least 2 (or more) of the following attributes (for example, the United States is not a true capitalist society, since the government actually provides social services for its citizens). Additionally, one person's opinion of the type of government may differ from another's (for example, some may argue that the United States is a plutocracy rather than a democracy since they may believe it is ruled by the wealthy). There are always shades of gray in any government. Even the most liberal democracies limit rival political activity to one extent or another, and even the most tyrannical dictatorships must organise a broad base of support, so it is very difficult "pigeonholing" every government into narrow categories.

The dialectical forms of government

The Classical Greek philosopher Plato discusses five types of regimes. They are aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. Plato also assigns a man to each of these regimes to illustrate what they stand for. The tyrannical man would represent tyranny for example. These five regimes progressively degenerate starting with aristocracy at the top and tyranny at the bottom.

In Republic, while Plato spends much time having Socrates narrate a conversation about the city he founds with Glaucon and Adeimantus "in speech", the discussion eventually turns to considering four regimes that exist in reality and tend to degrade successively into each other: timocracy, oligarchy (also called plutocracy), democracy and tyranny (also called despotism).

Forms of government by associated attributes

Descriptions of governments can be based on the following attributes:

By elements of where decision-making power is held

Aristarchic attributes

Governments with aristarchy attributes are traditionally controlled and organised by a small group of the most-qualified people, with no intervention from the most part of society; this small group usually shares some common trait. The opposite of an aristarchic government is kakistocracy.

Autocratic attributes

Governments with autocratic attributes are dominated by one person who has all the power over the people in a country. The Roman Republic made dictators to lead during times of war; the Roman dictators only held power for a small time. In modern times, an autocrat's rule is not stopped by any rules of law, constitutions, or other social and political institutions. After World War II, many governments in Latin America, Asia, and Africa were ruled by autocratic governments. Examples of autocrats include Idi Amin, Muammar Gaddafi, Adolf Hitler and Gamal Abdul Nasser.

Monarchic attributes

Governments with monarchic attributes are ruled by a king/emperor or a queen/empress who usually holds their position for life. There are two types of monarchies: absolute monarchies and constitutional monarchies. In an absolute monarchy, the ruler has no limits on their wishes or powers. In a constitutional monarchy a ruler's powers are limited by a document called a constitution. The constitution was put in place to put a check to these powers.

Pejorative attributes

Regardless of the form of government, the actual governance may be influenced by sectors with political power which are not part of the formal government. Certain actions of the governors, such as corruption, demagoguery, or fear mongering, may disrupt the intended way of working of the government if they are widespread enough.

By elements of who elects the empowered

Authoritarian attributes

Democratic attributes

Governments with democratic attributes are most common in the Western world and in some countries of the east that have been influenced by western society, often by being colonised by western powers over the course of history. In democracies, large proportions of the population may vote, either to make decisions or to choose representatives to make decisions. Commonly significant in democracies are political parties, which are groups of people with similar ideas about how a country or region should be governed. Different political parties have different ideas about how the government should handle different problems.

Oligarchic attributes

Governments with oligarchic attributes are ruled by a small group of segregated, powerful and/or influential people, who usually share similar interests and/or family relations. These people may spread power and elect candidates equally or not equally. An oligarchy is different from a true democracy because very few people are given the chance to change things. An oligarchy does not have to be hereditary or monarchic. An oligarchy does not have one clear ruler, but several rulers.

Some historical examples of oligarchy are the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Some critics of representative democracy think of the United States as an oligarchy. The Athenian democracy used sortition to elect candidates, almost always male, white, Greek, educated citizens holding a minimum of land, wealth and status.

Other attributes

By elements of how power distribution is structured

Republican attributes

A republic is a form of government in which the country is considered a "public matter" (Latin: res publica), not the private concern or property of the rulers, and where offices of states are subsequently directly or indirectly elected or appointed rather than inherited.

Federalism attributes

Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant (Latin: foedus, covenant) with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units (such as states or provinces). Federalism is a system based upon democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments, creating what is often called a federation. Proponents are often called federalists.

Other power structure attributes

Forms of government by other characteristic attributes

By socio-economic system attributes

Historically, most political systems originated as socioeconomic ideologies; experience with those movements in power, and the strong ties they may have to particular forms of government, can cause them to be considered as forms of government in themselves.

By significant constitutional attributes

Certain major characteristics are defining of certain types; others are historically associated with certain types of government.

• Rule according to higher law (unwritten ethical principles) vs. written constitutionalism
• Separation of church and state vs. state religion
• Civilian control of the military vs. stratocracy
• Totalitarianism/authoritarianism vs. libertarianism
  • Police state
• Majority rule or parliamentary sovereignty vs. constitution or bill of rights with separation of powers and supermajority rules to prevent tyranny of the majority and protect minority rights
• Androcracy (patriarchy) or gynarchy (matriarchy) vs. gender quotas, gender equality provision, or silence on the matter

By approach to regional autonomy

This list focuses on differing approaches that political systems take to the distribution of sovereignty, and the autonomy of regions within the state.

• Sovereignty located exclusively at the centre of political jurisdiction.
  • Empire
  • Unitary state
• Sovereignty located at the centre and in peripheral areas.
  • Hegemony
  • Federation and federal republic
  • Confederation
  • Federal monarchy
• Diverging degrees of sovereignty.
  • Asymmetrical federalism
  • Federacy
  • Associated state
  • Protectorate
  • Colonial dependency
  • Thalassocracy
  • League
  • Commonwealth
  • Decentralisation and devolution (powers redistributed from central to regional or local governments)

Theoretical and speculative attributes

These currently have no citable real-world examples outside of fiction.

Maps

See also

• Central government
• Civics
• Comparative government
• Constitutional economics
• Legal rights
• List of countries by system of government
• List of European Union member states by political system
• Ministry
• Political economy
• Politics
• State (polity)
• Voting system
• World government

References

Bibliography

• American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). 222 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-82517-2

Further reading

• Krader, Lawrence (1968). Formation of the State, in Foundations of Modern Anthropology Series. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. x, 118 p.

External links

• The Phrontistery Word List: Types of Government and Leadership
• What Are the Different Types of Governments?
• Types of Governments from Historical Atlas of the 20th Century
• Other classifications examples from Historical Atlas of the 20th Century
• World Affairs: Types of Government
• Regime Types
• CBBC Newsround: types of government
• Bill Moyers: Plutocracy Rising
• Phobiocracy by Chris Claypoole
• Forms of Government