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Form of government
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Forms of government
A form of government is a term that refers to the set of political institutions by which a state is organized Part of the Politics series
[1]
in order to exert its powers over a political community. Synonyms include "regime type" and "system of
government". This definition holds valid even if the government is unsuccessful in exerting its power. List of forms of government
Regardless of its qualities, a failed government is still a form of government. Churches, corporations, clubs,
and other sub-national entities also have "government" forms, but in this article only the organization of n Anarchism
states is discussed. n Aristocracy
n Authoritarianism
Eighteen nations in the World do not explicitly name their government forms in their official names (the n Autocracy
official name of Jamaica, for instance, is simply "Jamaica"), but most have an official name which n Communist state
identifies their form of government, or at least the form of government toward which they are striving: n Democracy
Direct democracy
n Australia, the Bahamas, and Dominica are each officially a commonwealth.
Representative democracy
n Luxembourg is a Grand Duchy.
n The United Arab Emirates is a collection of Muslim states, each an emirate in their own right
n Despotism
n Malaysia, Russia, Switzerland, and Saint Kitts & Nevis are each a federation.
n Dictatorship
n Libya is a jamahiriya Feudalism
n
n There are 33 kingdoms in the world, but 18 termed as such (the other 15 are known as realms). n Kleptocracy
Jordan is specifically a Hashemite Kingdom, and Great Britain and Northern Ireland highlights its n Kritarchy
separate historical regions by calling itself a United Kingdom. n Krytocracy
n Andorra, Liechtenstein, and Monaco are each a principality n Minarchism
n Republic is the most numerous form of government, at least officially, with 132 nations claiming to n Meritocracy
be republics in their official names. Many specify a type of republic. For instance, Egypt and Syria n Monarchy
are specifically Arab Republics, Guyana is specifically a Cooperative Republic, and Algeria claims
to be a Democratic & Popular Republic. Absolute monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
The invocation of democracy is common in the official names of republics - North Korea is a Democratic
People's Republic, four states are simply Democratic Republics, and Sri Lanka is a Democratic Socialist n Ochlocracy
Republic. States which wish to emphasize that their provinces have a fair amount of autonomy from the n Oligarchy
central government may specifically state this: Germany and Nigeria are each a Federal Republic, Ethiopia n Plutocracy
is a Federal Democratic Republic, the Comoros is a Federal Islamic Republic, and Brazil is a Federative n Republic
Republic. The sometimes utilized name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia emphasizes this nation's
Mixed government
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separateness from the neighboring Greek region of the same name. Government ideology is also a common Constitutional republic
signifier appended to "republic". Besides the Comoros, four other nations specifically dictate that they are Parliamentary republic
Islamic Republics. Asian nations influenced by Maoism may emphasize their belief system by specifying Socialist republic
the People as a whole in their official names: Laos is a People's Democratic Republic, and Bangladesh and Capitalist republic
China are People's Republics. Vietnam is a Socialist Republic. Finally, Tanzania emphasizes the cohesion
of its state as a United Republic. n Single-party state
n Thalassocracy
n Eleven nations simply refer to themselves as States, but a handful specify what kind of state. n Theocracy
n Theonomy
Micronesia is made up of Federated States, Papua New Guinea and Samoa emphasize that they are
n Totalitarianism
Independent States, while the United States of America and the United Mexican States are made up
Politics Portal
of constituent states.
n Brunei and Oman are Sultanates
n Burma simply states that it is a Union
Contents
n 1 Attributes of government
n 2 Other empirical and conceptual problems
n 3 See also
n 4 References
n 5 Further reading
n 6 External links
Attributes of government
Beyond official typologies it is important to think about regime types by looking at the general attributes of the forms of government [2]:
1. Traditional (clan or kinship) or modern (bureaucracies)
2. Personalistic (North Korea) or impersonal (Germany)
3. Totalitarian (Nazi Germany), Authoritarian (Zimbabwe) or Democratic (Belgium)
4. Elections (US) or heredity (Brunei)
5. Direct (Mexico) or indirect elections (Electoral College in the US)
6. Secular (European Union) or non-secular (Iran)
7. Division of powers, such as executive, judicial, and legislative boxes (India) or absence of division of powers (Peru under Fujimori).
8. Parliamentarian (Greece), Presidential (USA) or Monarchical (UK).
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9. Number of people in the Executive power (Switzerland has 7, France 2, US 1).
10. Composition of the legislative power (autocratic, unicameral, bicameral...)
11. Number of coalitions or party-appointed legislators in Assemblies
12. Federal (Argentina) or Unitary (France, China)
13. Rules of the electoral system:
1. plurality (most votes wins) - known as "First past the post" (U.K)
2. majoritarian (51%), including run-off elections (Argentina)
3. supermajoritarian (usually from 55% to 75% - there is a 60% cloture rule in the U.S. Senate, and there was a 55% independence
vote for Montenegro)
4. unanimity - (100% votes wins) (such as for the board of directors of a company)
14. Type of economic system
15. Prevalent ideologies and cultures
16. Strong institutional capacity (US) or weak capacity (Iraq)
17. Legitimate (South Africa) or illegitimate (former communist Romania)
18. De facto (effective control) or De jure (nominal control) of government
19. Sovereign (US), semi-sovereign (Puerto Rico), or not sovereign (Chechnya)
20. Racial segregation (Rhodesia) or desegregation
Other empirical and conceptual problems
On the surface, identifying a form of government appears to be easy. Most would say that the United States is a democracy while the former
Soviet Union was a dictatorship. However, as Kopstein and Lichbach (2005:4) argue, defining regimes is tricky. Defining a form of
government is especially problematic when trying to identify those elements that are essential to that form. There appears to be a disparity
between being able to identify a form of government and identifying the necessary characteristics of that form. For example, in trying to
identify the essential characteristics of a democracy, one might say "elections." However, both citizens of the former Soviet Union and
citizens of the United States voted for candidates to public office in their respective states. The problem with such a comparison is that most
people are not likely to accept it because it does not comport with their sense of reality. Since most people are not going to accept an
evaluation that makes the former Soviet Union as democratic as the United States, the usefulness of the concept is undermined. 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 [3]. It is
especially important in the political science fields of comparative politics and international relations. One important example of a book which
attempts to do so is Robert Dahl's Polyarchy (Yale University Press (1971)).
One approach is to further elaborate on the nature of the characteristics found within each regime. In the example of the US and the Soviet
Union, both did conduct elections, and yet one important difference between these two regimes is that the USSR had a single-party system,
with all other parties being outlawed. In contrast, the United States effectively has a bipartisan system with political parties being regulated,
but not forbidden. A system generally seen as a representative democracy (for instance Canada, India and the United States) may also include
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measures providing for: a degree of direct democracy in the form of referendums and for deliberative democracy in the form of the extensive
processes required for constitutional amendment.
Another complication is that a 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. Some examples are as follows:
n Perhaps the most widely cited example of such a phenomenon is the communist movement. This is an example of where the resulting
political systems may diverge from the original socio-economic ideologies from which they developed. This may mean that adherents
of the ideologies are actually opposed to the political systems commonly associated with them. For example, activists describing
themselves as Trotskyists or communists are often opposed to the communist states of the 20th century.
n Islamism is also often included on a list of movements that have deep implications for the form of government. Indeed, many nations in
the Islamic world use the term Islamic in the name of the state. However, these governments in practice exploit a range of different
mechanisms of power (for example debt and appeals to nationalism). This means that there is no single form of government that could
be described as “Islamic” government. Islam as a political movement is therefore better seen as a loose grouping of related political
practices rather than a single, coherent political movement.
n The basic principles of many other popular movements have deep implications for the form of government those movements support
and would introduce if they came to power. For example, bioregional democracy is a pillar of green politics.
See also
n Political regime
n Parliamentary system
n Semi-presidential system
n Presidential system
n Government
n Civics
n Comparative government
n Countries by system of government
n List of forms of government
References
1. ^ [Link] Kopstein and Lichbach, 2005
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2. ^ [Link]
3. ^ Lewellen, Ted C. Political Anthropology: An Introduction Third Edition. Praeger Publishers; 3rd edition (November 30, 2003)
Further reading
n Boix, Carles (2003). Democracy and Redistribution. New York: Cambridge University Press.
n Bunce, Valerie. 2003. “Rethinking Recent Democratization: Lessons from the Postcommunist Experience.” World Politics 55(2):167-
192.
n Colomer, Josep M. (2003). Political Institutions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
n Dahl, Robert Polyarchy Yale University Press (1971
n Heritage, Andrew, Editor-in-Chief. 2000. World Desk Reference
n Lijphart, Arend (1977). Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration. New Haven: Yale University Press.
n Linz, Juan. 2000. Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
n Linz, Juan, and Stepan, Alfred. 1996. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southernn Europe, South America, and
Post-Communist Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
n Lichbach, Mark and Alan Zukerman, eds. 1997. Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1997.
n Luebbert, Gregory M. 1987. “Social Foundations of Political Order in Interwar Europe,” World Politics 39, 4.
n 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.
n Comparative politics : interests, identities, and institutions in a changing global order/edited by Jeffrey Kopstein, Mark Lichbach, 2nd
ed, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
n O’Donnell, Guillermo. 1970. Modernization and Bureaucratic-Authoritarianism. Berkeley: University of California.
n O’Donnell, Guillermo, Schmitter, Philippe C., and Whitehead, Laurence, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: comparative
Perspectives. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
n Przeworski, Adam. 1992. Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America, New
York: Cambridge University Press.
n 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.
n Shugart, Mathhew and John M. Carey, Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics, New York,
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992.
n Taagepera, Rein and Matthew Shugart. 1989. Seats and votes: The effects and determinants of electoral systems, Yale Univ.
[Link]
External links
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n Electronic interuniversity journal Federalism-e ([Link]
n Types of Governments from Historical Atlas of the 20th Century ([Link]
n Other classifications examples from Historical Atlas of the 20th Century ([Link]
n [Link]
Retrieved from "[Link]
Categories: Forms of government | Government institutions | Political terms
n This page was last modified 04:19, 7 November 2007.
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