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 major types of
political systems in the modern era are
democracies,
monarchies, and
authoritarian
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...
and
totalitarian regimes. Historically prevalent forms of government include monarchy,
aristocracy
Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'.
At t ...
,
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
A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...
to
govern
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 ...
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". 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.
The word ''government'' derives from the Greek verb [] meaning ''to steer'' with a Gubernaculum (classical), gubernaculum (rudder), the metaphorical sense being attested in the literature of classical antiquity, including
Plato's Ship of State. In
British English, "government" sometimes refers to what's also known as a "
ministry
Ministry may refer to:
Government
* Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister
* Ministry (government department), a department of a government
Religion
* Christian ...
" or an "
administration", i.e., the policies and government officials of a particular executive or governing
coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
. Finally, ''government'' is also sometimes used in English as a
synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...
for rule or governance.
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. By the third to second millenniums BC, some of these had developed into larger governed areas:
Sumer
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...
,
ancient Egypt, the
Indus Valley civilization
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...
, and the
Yellow River civilization
Stone sickle, Peiligang culture (7000–5000 BC)">Peiligang_culture.html" ;"title="sickle, Peiligang culture">sickle, Peiligang culture (7000–5000 BC)
Yellow River civilization or Huanghe civilization (), Hwan‐huou civilization is an anc ...
.
The development of agriculture and
water control projects were a catalyst for the development of governments.
[The New Encyclopædia Britannica (15th edition)] On occasion a chief of a tribe was elected by various rituals or tests of strength to govern his tribe, sometimes with a group of elder tribesmen as a council. The human ability to precisely communicate abstract, learned information allowed humans to become ever more effective at agriculture, and that allowed for ever increasing population densities.
David Christian explains how this resulted in states with laws and governments.
Modern governments
Starting at the end of the 17th century, the prevalence of republican forms of government grew. The
English Civil War and
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
in England, the
American Revolution, and the
French Revolution contributed to the growth of representative forms of government. The
Soviet Union was the first large country to have a
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
government. Since the fall of the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
,
liberal democracy has become an even more prevalent form of government.
In the nineteenth and twentieth century, there was a significant increase in the size and scale of government at the national level. This included the regulation of corporations and the development of the
welfare state.
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. 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 or ideal form. The United States is a constitutional 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,
Voltaire argued that "the
Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire".
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 "
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 notes, "what Americans now call conservatism much of the world calls liberalism or
neoliberalism"; a "conservative" in Finland would be labeled a "
socialist" in the United States. Since the 1950s conservatism in the United States has been chiefly associated with the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
. However, during the era of
segregation many
Southern Democrats were conservatives, and they played a key role in the
conservative coalition
The conservative coalition, founded in 1937, was an unofficial alliance of members of the United States Congress which brought together the conservative wings of the Republican and Democratic parties to oppose President Franklin Delano Rooseve ...
that controlled Congress from 1937 to 1963.
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 "
pigeonholing" governments into narrow categories. Examples include the claims of the
United States as being a plutocracy rather than a democracy since some American voters believe elections are being manipulated by wealthy
Super PACs.
Forms
Plato in his book ''
The Republic'' divided governments into five basic types (four being existing forms and one being Plato's ideal form, which exists "only in speech"):
*
Aristocracy
Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'.
At t ...
(rule by law and order, like ideal traditional “benevolent” kingdoms that aren’t tyrannical)
*
Timocracy (rule by honor and duty, like a “benevolent” military; Sparta as an example)
*
Oligarchy (rule by wealth and market-based-ethics, like a free-trading capitalist state)
*
Democracy (rule by pure liberty and equality, like a free citizen)
*
Tyranny (rule by fear, like a despot)
These five regimes progressively degenerate starting with aristocracy at the top and tyranny at the bottom.
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.
From this follows the classification of forms of government according to which people have the authority to rule: either one person (an
autocracy
Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perh ...
, 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:
Basic political systems
According to
Yale professor
Juan José Linz there a three main types of
political systems today:
democracies,
totalitarian regimes and, sitting between these two,
authoritarian regimes with
hybrid regimes.
Another modern classification system includes
monarchies as a standalone entity or as a hybrid system of the main three.
Scholars generally refer to a
dictatorship as either a form of authoritarianism or totalitarianism.
Autocracy
An autocracy is a system of government in which supreme
power is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for the implicit threat of a
coup d'état or mass
insurrection).
Absolute monarchy is a historically prevalent form of autocracy, wherein a
monarch governs as a singular
sovereign
''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'.
The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...
with no limitation on
royal prerogative. Most absolute monarchies are
hereditary
Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic inform ...
, however some, notably the
Holy See, are
elected by an
electoral college (such as the
college of cardinals, or
prince-electors). Other forms of autocracy include
tyranny,
despotism
Despotism ( el, Δεσποτισμός, ''despotismós'') is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. Normally, that entity is an individual, the despot; but (as in an autocracy) societies which limit respect and ...
, and
dictatorship.
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , from "excellent", and "
power". is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small,
elite
In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...
ruling class,
such as a hereditary
nobility or
privilege
Privilege may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Privilege'' (film), a 1967 film directed by Peter Watkins
* ''Privilege'' (Ivor Cutler album), 1983
* ''Privilege'' (Television Personalities album), 1990
* ''Privilege (Abridged)'', an alb ...
d
caste
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
. This class exercises
minority rule
In political science, minoritarianism (or minorityism) is a neologism for a political structure or process in which a minority segment of a population has a certain degree of primacy in that entity's decision making. Minoritarianism may be contr ...
, 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-
peasant, non-servant, and non-
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
classes in the
feudal system.
Democracy
![Electoral democracies](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Electoral_democracies.svg)
Democracy is a system of government where
citizen
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
s exercise power by
voting and
deliberation
Deliberation is a process of thoughtfully weighing options, usually prior to voting. Deliberation emphasizes the use of logic and reason as opposed to power-struggle, creativity, or dialogue. Group decisions are generally made after deliberation ...
. In a
direct democracy
Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate decides on policy initiatives without legislator, elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently establishe ...
, the citizenry as a whole directly forms a
participatory
Citizen Participation or Public Participation in social science refers to different mechanisms for the public to express opinions—and ideally exert influence—regarding political, economic, management or other social decisions. Participato ...
governing body and vote directly on each issue. In
indirect democracy
Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy, is a type of democracy where elected people represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies function as some type of represe ...
, the citizenry governs indirectly through the selection of
representatives or
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
popular initiatives,
referendums (plebiscites), and the
right of recall. In a
constitutional democracy the powers of the majority are exercised within the framework of a representative democracy, but the constitution limits
majority rule, usually through the provision by all of certain
universal right
Some philosophers distinguish two types of rights, natural rights and legal rights.
* Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are ''universal'', ''fundamental'' and ...
s, e.g.
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
, or
freedom of association.
['' Oxford English Dictionary'': "democracy".]
Republics
A republic is a form of government in which the country is considered a "public matter" ( la, 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.
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
Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'.
At the time of the word' ...
or
oligarchies
Oligarchy (; ) is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, r ...
, where only some of the people rule, as republican forms of government.
Other terms used to describe different republics include
democratic republic,
parliamentary republic
A parliamentary republic is a republic that operates under a parliamentary system of government where the executive branch (the government) derives its legitimacy from and is accountable to the legislature (the parliament). There are a number ...
,
semi-presidential republic,
presidential republic,
federal republic
A federal republic is a federation of states with a republican form of government. At its core, the literal meaning of the word republic when used to reference a form of government means: "a country that is governed by elected representatives ...
,
people's republic, and
Islamic republic
The term Islamic republic has been used in different ways. Some Muslim religious leaders have used it as the name for a theoretical form of Islamic theocratic government enforcing sharia, or laws compatible with sharia. The term has also been u ...
.
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. Proponents are often called
federalist
The term ''federalist'' describes several political beliefs around the world. It may also refer to the concept of parties, whose members or supporters called themselves ''Federalists''.
History Europe federation
In Europe, proponents of de ...
s.
Branches
![Separation of powers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Separation_of_powers.png)
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 model. However, in
parliamentary and
semi-presidential system
A semi-presidential republic, is a republic in which a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter two being responsible to the legislature of the state. It differs from a parliamentary republic in that it has a ...
s, branches of government often intersect, having shared membership and overlapping functions. Many governments have fewer or additional branches, such as an independent
electoral commission or
auditory branch.
Party system
Presently, most governments are administered by members of an explicitly constituted
political party which coordinates the activities of associated government
official
An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...
s and
candidates for office. In a
multiparty system
In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coal ...
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 The effective number of parties is a concept introduced by Laakso and Taagepera (1979) which provides for an adjusted number of political parties in a country's party system. The idea behind this measure is to count parties and, at the same time, ...
may be limited.
A
majority government
A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. This is as opposed to a minority government, where the largest party in a legislature only has a plurality of seats. ...
is a government by one or more
governing parties together holding an absolute majority of seats in the parliament, in contrast to a
minority government
A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and Cabinet (government), cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or Coalition government, coalition of parties do ...
in which they have only a plurality of seats and often depend on a
confidence and supply arrangement with other parties. A
coalition government
A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...
is one in which multiple parties cooperate to form a government as part of 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, but even a minority government may consist of just one party unable to find a willing coalition partner at the moment.
A party which continuously maintains a single-party government within a (nominally) multiparty system constitutes a
dominant-party system
A dominant-party system, or one-party dominant system, is a political occurrence in which a single political party continuously dominates election results over running opposition groups or parties. Any ruling party staying in power for more th ...
. In a (nondemocratic)
one party system
A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...
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.
[ However the world is becoming more authoritarian with a quarter of the world's population under democratically backsliding governments.][The Global State of Democracy 2021]
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Government, Forms of
Political terminology
Main topic articles