Government

For government in linguistics, see Government (linguistics).

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Government, also known as the state, refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized (Referred : More to govern than control). 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 institutions by which a government of a state is organized. Synonyms include "regime type" and "system of government".

States are served by a continuous succession of different governments. Each successive government is composed of a body of individuals who control and exercise control over political decision-making. Their function is to make and enforce laws and arbitrate conflicts. In some societies, this group is often a self-perpetuating or hereditary class. In other societies, such as democracies, the political roles remain, but there is frequent turnover of the people actually filling the positions.

The word government is derived from the Latin infinitive gubernare, meaning "to govern" or "to manage". In parliamentary systems, the word "government" is used to refer to what in presidential systems would be the executive branch and to the governing party. In parliamentary systems, the government is composed of the prime minister and the cabinet. In other cases, "government" refers to executive, legislative, judicial, bureaucratic, and possibly also devolved powers.

Government is also known as the state. Public disapproval of a particular government (expressed, for example, by not re-electing an incumbent) does not necessarily represent disapproval of the state itself (i.e. of the particular framework of government). In fact, leaders often attempt to deliberately blur the lines between the two, in order to conflate their interests with those of the polity.

Classifying governments

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.

Another complication is that a huge number of political systems originate as socio-economic movements and are then carried into governments by specific parties naming themselves after those movements. 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.

Maps

States by their systems of government. For the complete list of systems by country, see List of countries by system of government.

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  presidential republics, full presidential system

  presidential republics, parliament supervising an executive presidency

  presidential republics, semi-presidential system

  parliamentary republics

  parliamentary constitutional monarchies in which the monarch does not personally exercise power

  constitutional monarchies in which the monarch personally exercises power, often alongside a weak parliament

  absolute monarchies

  states whose constitutions grant only a single party the right to govern

  states where constitutional provisions for government have been suspended

Countries highlighted in blue are designated "electoral democracies" in Freedom House's 2010 survey "Freedom in the World". Freedom House considers democracy in practice, not merely official claims.

A world map distinguishing countries of the world as monarchies (red) from other forms of government (blue). Many monarchies are considered electoral democracies because the monarch is largely ritual; in other cases the monarch is the only powerful political authority.

Forms of government

• Adhocracy - government based on type of organization that operates in opposite fashion to a bureaucracy.
• Authoritarian – Authoritarian governments are characterized by an emphasis on the authority of the state in a republic or union. It is a political system controlled by unelected rulers who usually permit some degree of individual freedom.
• Anarchism - Sometimes said to be non-governance; it is a structure which strives for non-hierarchical voluntary associations among agents.
• Band Society - government based on small (usually family) unit with a semi-informal hierarchy, with strongest (either physical strength or strength of character) as leader. Very much like a pack seen in other animals, such as wolves.
• Chiefdom (Tribal) - government based on small complex society of varying degrees of centralization that is led by an individual known as a chief.
• Constitutional monarchy – A government that has a monarch, but one whose powers are limited by law or by a formal constitution, such as the United Kingdom
• Constitutional republic – A government whose powers are limited by law or a formal constitution, and chosen by a vote amongst at least some sections of the populace (Ancient Sparta was in its own terms a republic, though most inhabitants were disenfranchised; The United States is a republic, but the large numbers of African Americans and women did not have the vote early on). Republics which exclude sections of the populace from participation will typically claim to represent all citizens (by defining people without the vote as "non-citizens").
• Democracy – Rule by a government chosen by election where most of the populace are enfranchised. The key distinction between a democracy and other forms of constitutional government is usually taken to be that the right to vote is not limited by a person's wealth or race (the main qualification for enfranchisement is usually having reached a certain age). A Democratic government is, therefore, one supported (at least at the time of the election) by a majority of the populace (provided the election was held fairly). A "majority" may be defined in different ways. There are many "power-sharing" (usually in countries where people mainly identify themselves by race or religion) or "electoral-college" or "constituency" systems where the government is not chosen by a simple one-vote-per-person headcount.
• Dictatorship – Rule by an individual who has full power over the country. The term may refer to a system where the dictator came to power, and holds it, purely by force - but it also includes systems where the dictator first came to power legitimately but then was able to amend the constitution so as to, in effect, gather all power for themselves. See also Autocracy and Stratocracy.
• Emirate - similar to a monarchy or sultanate, but a government in which the supreme power is in the hands of an emir (the ruler of a Muslim state); the emir may be an absolute overlord or a sovereign with constitutionally limited authority.
• Geniocracy - government ruled by creativity, innovation, intelligence and wisdom.
• Kratocracy - government ruled by those strong enough to seize power through physical force or political cunning.
• Kritocracy - government ruled by judges.
• Matriarchy - Rule by which females (especially mothers) have the central roles of political leadership.
• Meritocracy - Rule by a group selected on the basis of their ability.
• Monarchy – Rule by an individual who has inherited the role and expects to bequeath it to their heir.
• Nomocracy - Rule according to higher law. That is, a government under the sovereignty of rational laws and civic right as opposed to one under theocratic systems of government [1]. In a nomocracy, ultimate and final authority (sovereignty) exists in the law.
• Oligarchy – Rule by a small group of people who share similar interests or family relations.
• Patriarchy - Rule by which males act as the primary political authority, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property.
• Plutocracy – A government composed of the wealthy class. Any of the forms of government listed here can be plutocracy. For instance, if all of the voted representatives in a republic are wealthy, then it is a republic and a plutocracy.
• Republic - is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. Montesquieu included both democracies, where all the people have a share in rule, and aristocracies or oligarchies, where only some of the people rule, as republican forms of government.
• Stratocracy - form of military government in which the state and the military are traditionally the same thing. (Not to be confused with "militarism" or "military dictatorship".)
• Technocracy - government ruled by doctors, engineers, scientists, professionals and other technical experts.
• Theocracy – Rule by a religious elite.
• Timocracy - government ruled by honorable citizens and property owners.
• Totalitarian – Totalitarian governments regulate nearly every aspect of public and private life.

Significant attributes

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

• Nomocracy - rule of law
• Civilian control of the military
• Totalitarianism/Authoritarianism vs. liberty
  • Police state
• Economic system (e.g. capitalism, socialism, welfare state)
• Patriarchy or matriarchy - dominance of a particular gender

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 center of political jurisdiction.
  • Empire
• Sovereignty located at the centre and in peripheral areas.
  • Federation and Federal republic
  • Confederation
• Diverging degrees of sovereignty.
  • Asymmetrical federalism
  • Federacy
  • Associated state
  • Devolved state - sovereignty can be abolished without changing the constitution.

See also

• List of countries by system of government
• List of European Union member states by political system
• Political system
• Politics
• State (polity)
• Central government
• World government
• Civics
• Comparative government
• Voting system

Further reading

• Kjaer, Anne Mette (2004). Governance. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9780745629797. http://books.google.com/books?id=AY5SIsf1nI4C. 
• Newton, Kenneth & Van Deth, Jan W. (2005). Foundations of Comparative Politics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521536200. http://books.google.com/books?id=jkPIY_lVKUIC. 
• Sharma, Urmila & Sharma, S.K. (2000). "Forms of Government". Principles and Theory of Political Science. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. ISBN 9788171569380. http://books.google.com/books?id=qdZ3VRRLDrgC&pg=PA406. 
• Boix, Carles (2003). Democracy and Redistribution. New York: Cambridge University Press. 
• Bunce, Valerie. 2003. “Rethinking Recent Democratization: Lessons from the Postcommunist Experience.” World Politics 55(2):167-192.
• Colomer, Josep M. (2003). Political Institutions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
• Dahl, Robert Polyarchy Yale University Press (1971)
• Heritage, Andrew, Editor-in-Chief. 2000. World Desk Reference
• Lijphart, Arend (1977). Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration. New Haven: Yale University Press. 
• Linz, Juan. 2000. Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
• Linz, Juan, and Stepan, Alfred. 1996. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southernn Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
• Lichbach, Mark and Alan Zukerman, eds. 1997. Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• Luebbert, Gregory M. 1987. “Social Foundations of Political Order in Interwar Europe,” World Politics 39, 4.
• Moore, Barrington, Jr. 1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Cambridge: Beacon Press, ch. 7-9.
• Comparative politics : interests, identities, and institutions in a changing global order/edited by Jeffrey Kopstein, Mark Lichbach, 2nd ed, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
• O’Donnell, Guillermo. 1970. Modernization and Bureaucratic-Authoritarianism. Berkeley: University of California.
• O’Donnell, Guillermo, Schmitter, Philippe C., and Whitehead, Laurence, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: comparative Perspectives. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Przeworski, Adam. 1992. Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America, New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Przeworski, Adam, Alvarez, Michael, Cheibub, Jose, and Limongi, Fernando. 2000. Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well Being in the World, 1950-1990. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Shugart, Mathhew and John M. Carey, Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics, New York, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992.
• Taagepera, Rein and Matthew Shugart. 1989. Seats and votes: The effects and determinants of electoral systems, Yale Univ. Press.

External links

• What Are the Different Types of Governments?
• Electronic interuniversity journal Federalism-e
• Types of Governments from Historical Atlas of the 20th Century
• Other classifications examples from Historical Atlas of the 20th Century
• http://stutzfamily.com/mrstutz/WorldAffairs/typesofgovt.html
• Regime Types
• CBBC Newsround : types of government