Government

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Systems of government
Republican forms of government:
  Presidential republics with an executive presidency separate from the legislature
  Semi-presidential system with both an executive presidency and a separate head of government that leads the rest of the executive, who is appointed by the president and accountable to the legislature
  Parliamentary republics with a ceremonial and non-executive president, where a separate head of government leads the executive and is dependent on the confidence of the legislature
  Republics in which a combined head or directory of state and government is elected or nominated by the legislature
  One-party states in which all other parties are either outlawed or only enjoy limited and controlled participation in elections.

Monarchical forms of government:
  Constitutional monarchies with a ceremonial and non-executive monarch, where a separate head of government leads the executive
  Semi-constitutional monarchies with a ceremonial monarch, but where royalty still hold significant executive or legislative power
  Absolute monarchies where the monarch leads the executive

  Countries where constitutional provisions for government have been suspended
  Countries which do not fit any of the above systems (e.g. provisional government or unclear political situations)

A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.

In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a means by which organizational policies are enforced, as well as a mechanism for determining policy. In many countries, the government has a kind of constitution, a statement of its governing principles and philosophy.

While all types of organizations have governance, the term government is often used more specifically to refer to the approximately 200 independent national governments and subsidiary organizations.

The main types of modern

totalitarian regimes, and, sitting between these two, authoritarian regimes with a variety of hybrid regimes.[1][2] Modern classification system also include monarchies as a standalone entity or as a hybrid system of the main three.[3][4] Historically prevalent forms of government include monarchy, aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, theocracy, and tyranny. These forms are not always mutually exclusive, and mixed governments are common. The main aspect of any philosophy of government is how political power is obtained, with the two main forms being electoral contest and hereditary succession
.

Definitions and etymology

A government is the system to govern a state or community. The Columbia Encyclopedia defines government as "a system of social control under which the right to make laws, and the right to enforce them, is vested in a particular group in society".[5] While all types of organizations have governance, the word government is often used more specifically to refer to the approximately 200 independent national governments on Earth, as well as their subsidiary organizations, such as state and provincial governments as well as local governments.[6]

The word government derives from the Greek verb κυβερνάω [kubernáo] meaning to steer with a gubernaculum (rudder), the metaphorical sense being attested in the literature of classical antiquity, including Plato's Ship of State.[7] In British English, "government" sometimes refers to what's also known as a "ministry" or an "administration", i.e., the policies and government officials of a particular executive or governing coalition. Finally, government is also sometimes used in English as a synonym for rule or governance.[8]

In other languages, cognates may have a narrower scope, such as the government of Portugal, which is actually more similar to the concept of "administration".

History

Earliest governments

The moment and place that the phenomenon of human government developed is lost in time; however, history does record the formations of early governments. About 5,000 years ago, the first small city-states appeared.

Indus Valley civilization, and the Yellow River civilization.[10]

One reason that explains the emergence of governments includes agriculture. Since the Neolithic Revolution, agriculture was an efficient method to create food surplus. This enabled people to specialize in non-agricultural activities. Some of them included being able to rule over others as an external authority. Others included social experimentation with diverse governance models. Both these activities formed the basis of governments. [11] These governments gradually became more complex as agriculture supported larger and denser populations, creating new interactions and social pressures that the government needed to control. David Christian explains

As farming populations gathered in larger and denser communities, interactions between different groups increased and the social pressure rose until, in a striking parallel with star formation, new structures suddenly appeared, together with a new level of complexity. Like stars, cities and states reorganize and energize the smaller objects within their gravitational field.[9]

Another explanation includes the need to properly manage infrastructure projects such as water infrastructure. Historically, this required centralized administration and complex social organisation, as seen in regions like Mesopotamia.[12] However, there is archaeological evidence that shows similar successes with more egalitarian and decentralized complex societies.[13]

Modern governments

Starting at the end of the 17th century, the prevalence of republican forms of government grew. The

Communist government.[6] Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, liberal democracy has become an even more prevalent form of government.[14]

In the nineteenth and twentieth century, there was a significant increase in the size and scale of government at the national level.[15] This included the regulation of corporations and the development of the welfare state.[14]

Political science

Classification

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.[16] It is especially important in the political science fields of comparative politics and international relations
. Like all categories discerned within forms of government, the boundaries of government classifications are either fluid or ill-defined.

Superficially, all governments have an official

socialist republic. However self-identification is not objective, and as Kopstein and Lichbach argue, defining regimes can be tricky, especially de facto, when both its government and its economy deviate in practice.[17] For example, Voltaire argued that "the Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire".[18] In practice, the Soviet Union was a centralized autocratic one-party state under Joseph Stalin
.

Identifying a form of government is also difficult because many

political systems
originate as socio-economic movements and are then carried into governments by 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 "

socialist" in the United States.[19] Since the 1950s conservatism in the United States has been chiefly associated with right-wing politics and 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.[20][a]

Social-political ambiguity

Opinions vary by individuals concerning the types and properties of governments that exist. "Shades of gray" are commonplace in any government and its corresponding classification. Even the most liberal democracies limit rival political activity to one extent or another while the most tyrannical dictatorships must organize a broad base of support thereby creating difficulties for "

Super PACs.[21] Some consider that government is to be reconceptualised where in times of climatic change the needs and desires of the individual are reshaped to generate sufficiency for all.[22]

Measurement of governing

A quality of a government can be measured by Government effectiveness index, which relates to political efficacy and state capacity.[23]

Forms

Plato in his book The Republic (375 BC) divided governments into five basic types (four being existing forms and one being Plato's ideal form, which exists "only in speech"):[24]

  • Aristocracy (rule by law and order, like ideal traditional "benevolent" kingdoms that are not tyrannical)
  • Democracy (rule by pure liberty and equality, like a free citizen)
  • Oligarchy (rule by wealth and market-based-ethics, like a free-trading capitalist state)
  • Timocracy (rule by honor and duty, like a "benevolent" military; Sparta as an example)
  • Tyranny (rule by fear, like a despot)

These five regimes progressively degenerate starting with aristocracy at the top and tyranny at the bottom.[25]

In his Politics, Aristotle elaborates on Plato's five regimes discussing them in relation to the government of one, of the few, and of the many.[26] From this follows the classification of forms of government according to which people have the authority to rule: either one person (an autocracy, such as monarchy), a select group of people (an aristocracy), or the people as a whole (a democracy, such as a republic).

Thomas Hobbes stated on their classification:

The difference of Commonwealths consisteth in the difference of the sovereign, or the person representative of all and every one of the multitude. And because the sovereignty is either in one man, or in an assembly of more than one; and into that assembly either every man hath right to enter, or not every one, but certain men distinguished from the rest; it is manifest there can be but three kinds of Commonwealth. For the representative must needs be one man, or more; and if more, then it is the assembly of all, or but of a part. When the representative is one man, then is the Commonwealth a monarchy; when an assembly of all that will come together, then it is a democracy, or popular Commonwealth; when an assembly of a part only, then it is called an aristocracy. Other kind of Commonwealth there can be none: for either one, or more, or all, must have the sovereign power (which I have shown to be indivisible) entire.[27]

Modern basic political systems

According to

Yale professor Juan José Linz, there a three main types of political systems today: democracies
,
monarchies as a standalone entity or as a hybrid system of the main three.[3] Scholars generally refer to a dictatorship as either a form of authoritarianism or totalitarianism.[29][2][30]

Autocracy

An autocracy is a system of government in which supreme

tyranny, despotism, and dictatorship
.

Aristocracy

Aristocracy

minority rule, often as a landed timocracy, wealthy plutocracy, or oligarchy
.

Many monarchies were aristocracies, although in modern constitutional monarchies the monarch may have little effective power. The term aristocracy could also refer to the non-

]

Democracy

  •   National governments which self-identify as democracies
  •   National governments which do not self-identify as democracies
Governments recognised as "electoral democracies" as of 2022 by the Freedom in the World survey[c]

Democracy is a system of government where

delegates from among themselves, typically by election or, less commonly, by sortition. These select citizens then meet to form a governing body, such as a legislature or jury
.

Some governments combine both direct and indirect democratic governance, wherein the citizenry selects representatives to administer day-to-day governance, while also reserving the right govern directly through

Republics

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. 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.[35][36]

A common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of state is not a monarch.[37][38] 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.[39]

Other terms used to describe different republics include

.

Federalism

Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by 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, variously called states, provinces or otherwise. Federalism is a system based upon democratic principles and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments, creating what is often called a federation.[40] Proponents are often called federalists.

Branches

US government
, demonstrating the trias politica model

Governments are typically organised into distinct institutions constituting branches of government each with particular powers, functions, duties, and responsibilities. The distribution of powers between these institutions differs between governments, as do the functions and number of branches. An independent, parallel distribution of powers between branches of government is the separation of powers. A shared, intersecting, or overlapping distribution of powers is the fusion of powers.

Governments are often organised into three branches with separate powers: a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary; this is sometimes called the trias politica model. However, in

electoral commission or auditory branch.[41]

Party system

Presently, most governments are administered by members of an explicitly constituted

multiparty system of government, multiple political parties have the capacity to gain control of government offices, typically by competing in elections, although the effective number of parties
may be limited.

A

coalition agreement. In a single-party government a single party forms a government without the support of a coalition, as is typically the case with majority governments,[42][43] but even a minority government may consist of just one party unable to find a willing coalition partner at the moment.[44]

A state that continuously maintains a single-party government within a (nominally) multiparty system possesses a

one-party system a single ruling party has the (more-or-less) exclusive right to form the government, and the formation of other parties may be obstructed or illegal. In some cases, a government may have a non-partisan system, as is the case with absolute monarchy or non-partisan democracy
.

Maps

Democracy is the most popular form of government with more than half of the nations in the world being democracies-97 of 167 nations as of 2021.[45] However the world is becoming more authoritarian with a quarter of the world's population under democratically backsliding governments.[45]

Democracy Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit, 2017.[46]

World first-and-second degree administrative levels
Federations

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Frederickson 2000, p. 12, quote:"...conservative southern Democrats viewed warily the potential of New Deal programs to threaten the region's economic dependence on cheap labor while stirring the democratic ambitions of the disfranchised and undermining white supremacy."
  2. Ancient Greek: ἀριστοκρατία aristokratía, from ἄριστος aristos "excellent", and κράτος kratos "power
    ".
  3. US government
    .

References

  1. from the original on 30 April 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  2. ^ from the original on 22 April 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  3. ^ .
  4. ^ "14.2 Types of Political Systems". 8 April 2016. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  5. ^ Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.). Columbia University Press. 2000.[full citation needed]
  6. ^ a b Smelser & Baltes 2001, p. [page needed].
  7. ^ Brock 2013, p. 53–62.
  8. ^ "Government English Definition and Meaning". Lexico. Archived from the original on 17 July 2022. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  9. ^ a b Christian 2004, p. 245.
  10. ^ Christian 2004, p. 294.
  11. on 17 August 2000.
  12. .
  13. from the original on 24 June 2016.
  14. ^ a b Kuper & Kuper 2008, p. [page needed].
  15. ^ Haider-Markel 2014, p. [page needed].
  16. ^ Lewellen 2003, p. [page needed].
  17. ^ Kopstein & Lichbach 2005, p. 4.
  18. ^ Renna 2015.
  19. ^ Ribuffo 2011, pp. 2–6, quote on p. 6.
  20. ^ Frederickson 2000, p. 12.
  21. ^ Freeland 2012.
  22. ^ "Governing the "Enough" in a Warming World The Discourse of "Sufficiency" from a Climate Governmentality Perspective". Deflorian, Michel (2015). Retrieved 2 October 2023
  23. ^ Guisan, Maria-Carmen (2009). "Government effectiveness, education, economic development and well-being: analysis of European countries in comparison with the United States and Canada, 2000-2007" (PDF). Applied Econometrics and International Development. 9 (1): 1. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  24. .
  25. ^ Brill 2016.
  26. .
  27. ^ Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan  – via Wikisource.
  28. from the original on 22 April 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  29. from the original on 22 April 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  30. from the original on 8 March 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  31. ^ Johnson, Paul M. "Autocracy: A Glossary of Political Economy Terms". Auburn.edu. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  32. ^ "aristocracy". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  33. ^ Oxford English Dictionary: "democracy".
  34. .
  35. ^ Montesquieu 1748, book 2, chapters 1.
  36. ^ "Republic". Encyclopædia Britannica.[full citation needed]
  37. ^ "republic". WordNet 3.0. Archived from the original on 12 March 2009. Retrieved 20 March 2009.
  38. ^ "Republic". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
  39. ^ Montesquieu 1748, book 2, chapters 2–3.
  40. .
  41. ^ Needler 1991, pp. 116–118.
  42. ^ Gallagher, Laver & Mair 2006.
  43. ^ Kettle 2015.
  44. ^ Duxbury 2021.
  45. ^ a b The Global State of Democracy 2021 Archived 9 August 2022 at the Wayback Machine, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
  46. ^ "Democracy Index 2017 – Economist Intelligence Unit" (PDF). EIU.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 December 2020. Retrieved 17 February 2018.

Bibliography

Further reading