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A government is the system by which a state or community is governed.[1] 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.[2][3] 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, history, philosophy, science, and sociology.
From Middle English government, from Old French government (French gouvernement), from Latin gubernatio ("management, government"). Government is a compound formed from the Ancient Greek κυβερνάω (kubernaō, "I steer, drive, guide, pilot") and the Latin -mente, ablative singular of mēns ("mind").
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.[5] 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.[6] 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 complicated 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".[7] 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.[8]
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 pigeonholing" every government into narrow categories.
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).
Descriptions of governments can be based on the following 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.
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.
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.
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.
Certain major characteristics are defining of certain types; others are historically associated with certain types of government.
This list focuses on differing approaches that political systems take to the distribution of sovereignty, and the autonomy of regions within the state.
/ˌkôrpərəˈtäkrəsē/ .... a society or system that is governed or controlled by corporations:
Monarchy, Anarchism, Public administration, Politics, Communism
Politics, Monarchy, Switzerland, Socialism, Direct democracy
Delhi, India, Rajasthan, Pakistan, Maharashtra
Public administration, International relations, Politics, Public policy, Law
Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Vatican City, Andorra, Qatar
Radio spectrum, Federal Communications Commission, Command and Control, Government, Interference (communication)
World Bank, Insurance, Togo, Risk, Income
Authority, Anarchism, Turkey, Politics, Socialism
Totalitarianism, Government, Authoritarianism, Dictatorship, Oligarchy