Government
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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
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.
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
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
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Classification
In political science, it has long been a goal to create a typology or taxonomy of
Superficially, all governments have an official
Identifying a form of government is also difficult because many
Other complications include general non-consensus or deliberate "
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 "
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
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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
,Autocracy
An autocracy is a system of government in which supreme
Aristocracy
Aristocracy.
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
Democracy is a system of government where
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" (
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
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
Party system
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Presently, most governments are administered by members of an explicitly constituted
A
A state that continuously maintains a single-party government within a (nominally) multiparty system possesses a
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]
Full Democracies 9–10 8–9 | Flawed Democracies 7–8 6–7 | Hybrid Regimes 5–6 4–5 | Authoritarian Regimes 3–4 2–3 0–2 |
See also
- List of forms of government
- Central government
- Civics
- Comparative government
- Constitutional economics
- Deep state
- Digital democracy
- E-Government
- History of politics
- Legal rights
- List of countries by system of government
- List of European Union member states by political system
- Local government
- Ministry
- Political economy
- Political history
- Prime ministerial government
- State (polity)
- Voting system
- World government
Notes
- ^ 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."
- ".
- US government.
References
- ISBN 978-1-317-34529-9. Archivedfrom the original on 30 April 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
- ^ OCLC 1172052725. Archivedfrom the original on 22 April 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
- ^ OCLC 1013825392.
- ^ "14.2 Types of Political Systems". 8 April 2016. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
- ^ Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.). Columbia University Press. 2000.[full citation needed]
- ^ a b Smelser & Baltes 2001, p. [page needed].
- ^ Brock 2013, p. 53–62.
- ^ "Government English Definition and Meaning". Lexico. Archived from the original on 17 July 2022. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
- ^ a b Christian 2004, p. 245.
- ^ Christian 2004, p. 294.
- doi:10.1037/0003-066x.54.6.408. Archived from the originalon 17 August 2000.
- ISBN 978-0-374-53322-9.
- ISBN 978-0-521-63075-7. Archivedfrom the original on 24 June 2016.
- ^ a b Kuper & Kuper 2008, p. [page needed].
- ^ Haider-Markel 2014, p. [page needed].
- ^ Lewellen 2003, p. [page needed].
- ^ Kopstein & Lichbach 2005, p. 4.
- ^ Renna 2015.
- ^ Ribuffo 2011, pp. 2–6, quote on p. 6.
- ^ Frederickson 2000, p. 12.
- ^ Freeland 2012.
- ^ "Governing the "Enough" in a Warming World The Discourse of "Sufficiency" from a Climate Governmentality Perspective". Deflorian, Michel (2015). Retrieved 2 October 2023
- ^ 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.
- OCLC 1081354236.
- ^ Brill 2016.
- OCLC 1107421360.
- ^ Hobbes, Thomas. Wikisource. – via
- ISBN 978-1-135-93226-8. Archivedfrom the original on 22 April 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-107-55889-2. Archivedfrom the original on 22 April 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
- from the original on 8 March 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
- ^ Johnson, Paul M. "Autocracy: A Glossary of Political Economy Terms". Auburn.edu. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
- ^ "aristocracy". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary: "democracy".
- ISBN 978-0-85229-135-1.
- ^ Montesquieu 1748, book 2, chapters 1.
- ^ "Republic". Encyclopædia Britannica.[full citation needed]
- ^ "republic". WordNet 3.0. Archived from the original on 12 March 2009. Retrieved 20 March 2009.
- ^ "Republic". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
- ^ Montesquieu 1748, book 2, chapters 2–3.
- ISBN 978-0-19-929054-3.
- ^ Needler 1991, pp. 116–118.
- ^ Gallagher, Laver & Mair 2006.
- ^ Kettle 2015.
- ^ Duxbury 2021.
- ^ a b The Global State of Democracy 2021 Archived 9 August 2022 at the Wayback Machine, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
- ^ "Democracy Index 2017 – Economist Intelligence Unit" (PDF). EIU.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 December 2020. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
Bibliography
- Brill, Sara (2016). "Political Pathology in Plato's Republic". Apeiron. 49 (2): 127–161. from the original on 27 October 2022. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- Brock, Roger (2013). Greek Political Imagery from Homer to Aristotle. London: Bloomsbury. OCLC 1040413173. Archivedfrom the original on 9 November 2023. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
- Christian, David (2004). Maps of Time: an Introduction to Big History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. OCLC 966003275.
- Duxbury, Charlie (29 November 2021). "Magdalena Andersson named Swedish prime minister (again)". Politico. Archived from the original on 15 April 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
- Frederickson, Kari (2000). The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932–1968. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. OCLC 475254808.
- OCLC 795857028.
- Gallagher, Michael; Laver, M.; Mair, P. (2006). Representative Government in Western Europe (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. OCLC 906939909.
- Haider-Markel, Donald P. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. OCLC 904484428.
- Kettle, Martin (17 April 2015). "Coalition and minority governments are not so unusual in UK elections; The first-past-the-post system has led to fewer one-party majority governments in Britain than might be expected -- only half of all those in the 20th century". Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2022 – via Gale General OneFile.
- Kopstein, Jeffrey; Lichbach, Mark, eds. (2005). Comparative politics: interests, identities, and institutions in a changing global order (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 1293165230.
- Kuper, Adam; Kuper, Jessica, eds. (2008). The Social Science Encyclopedia. London: Routledge. OCLC 789658928.
- Lewellen, Ted C. (2003). Political Anthropology: An Introduction (3rd ed.). Westport, CT: Praeger. from the original on 9 November 2023. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
- Montesquieu (1748). The Spirit of the Laws.
- Needler, Martin C. (1991). The Concepts of Comparative Politics. New York: Praeger. OCLC 925042067.
- Renna, Thomas (September 2015). "The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire". Michigan Academician. 42 (1): 60–75. .
- Ribuffo, Leo P. (2011). "20 Suggestions for Studying the Right now that Studying the Right is Trendy". Historically Speaking. 12 (1): 2–6. S2CID 144367661.
- Smelser, Neil J.; Baltes, Paul B. (2001). International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. New York: Elsevier Science. OCLC 43548228.
Further reading
- OCLC 1026803822.
- OCLC 475265120.
- OCLC 849820048.
- Friedrich, Carl J.; OCLC 826626632.
- Krader, Lawrence (1968). Formation of the State. Foundations of Modern Anthropology. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. OCLC 266086412.