List of forms of government
110-634: List of forms of government A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power influence, which may cause middle or small powers to consider the great powers' opinions before taking actions of their own. International relations theorists have posited that great power status can be characterized into power capabilities, spatial aspects, and status dimensions. While some nations are widely considered to be great powers, there
220-575: A dictatorship or it may be a group, as in a one-party state . The word despotism means to "rule in the fashion of despots" and is often used to describe autocracy. Historical examples of autocracy include the Roman Empire , North Korea , the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan , Eritrea and Nazi Germany . Regardless of the form of government, the actual governance may be influenced by sectors with political power which are not part of
330-536: A collection of facts lumped together by modern historians. Between 1817 and 1825, Ranke worked as a schoolmaster teaching classics at the Friedrichs Gymnasium in Frankfurt an der Oder . During this time, he became interested in history in part because of his desire to be involved in the developing field of a more professionalized history and in part because of his desire to find the hand of God in
440-622: A definition of a Great power that it must be able to maintain itself against all others, even when they are united, then Frederick has raised Prussia to that position." These positions have been the subject of criticism. In 2011, the US had 10 major strengths according to Chinese scholar Peng Yuan, the director of the Institute of American Studies of the China Institutes for Contemporary International Studies. However he also noted where
550-589: A determination to support the arrangement agreed upon, and to turn the general influence and if necessary the general arms against the Power that shall first attempt to disturb the Continental peace." The Congress of Vienna consisted of five main powers: the Austrian Empire , France , Prussia , Russia , and Great Britain . These five primary participants constituted the original great powers as we know
660-437: A form of government in which 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 or oligarchies , where only some of
770-494: A former Hegelian, who suggested that Ranke engaged in some of the practices he criticized in other historians. Ranke began his first book with the statement in the introduction that he would show the unity of the experiences of the "Teutonic" nations of Scandinavia , England and Germany and the "Latin" nations of Italy , Spain and France through the great "respirations" of the Völkerwanderung (great migration),
880-406: A great influence on Western historiography and is considered a symbol of the quality of 19th century German historical studies. Ranke, influenced by Barthold Georg Niebuhr , was very talented in constructing narratives without exceeding the limits of historical evidence. His critics have noted the influence of Lutheranism in guiding his work, especially his belief that God's actions were manifest in
990-493: A great power. As a nation will seldom declare that it is acting as such, this usually entails a retrospective examination of state conduct. As a result, this is of limited use in establishing the nature of contemporary powers, at least not without the exercise of subjective observation. Other important criteria throughout history are that great powers should have enough influence to be included in discussions of contemporary political and diplomatic questions, and exercise influence on
1100-541: A historical state of human society, especially before the concentration of power afforded by agriculture. It has been presented as a viable long-term choice by individuals known as anarchists who oppose the state and other forms of coercive hierarchies. These systems are often highly organized, and include institutional or cultural systems to prevent the concentration of power. Anarchism typically advocates for social organization in non-hierarchical, voluntary associations where people voluntarily help each other . There are
1210-410: A major or great power. Former British Ambassador to Brazil, Peter Collecott identifies that Brazil's recognition as a potential great and superpower largely stems from its own national identity and ambition. Professor Kwang Ho Chun feels that Brazil will emerge as a great power with an important position in some spheres of influence. Others suggest India and Brazil may even have the potential to emerge as
SECTION 10
#17327659899071320-565: A member to the American Philosophical Society . After his retirement in 1871, Ranke continued to write on a variety of subjects relating to German history such as the French Revolutionary Wars , Albrecht von Wallenstein , Karl August von Hardenberg , and King Frederick William IV of Prussia . In 1880, Ranke began a huge six-volume work on world history which began with ancient Egypt and
1430-586: A minimum of land, wealth and status. Some critics of capitalism and/or representative democracy think of the United States and the United Kingdom as oligarchies . These categories are not exclusive. Autocracies are ruled by a single entity with absolute power, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regular mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for implicit threat). That entity may be an individual, as in
1540-431: A minimum of wealth and status. Social democracy rejects the "either/or" phobiocratic/polarization interpretation of capitalism versus socialism. Social democracy argues that all citizens should be legally entitled to certain social rights. These are made up of universal access to public services such as: education, health care, workers' compensation, public transportation, and other services including child care and care for
1650-469: A nation's great power status has also been a criterion for being a great power. As political scientist George Modelski notes, "The status of Great power is sometimes confused with the condition of being powerful. The office, as it is known, did in fact evolve from the role played by the great military states in earlier periods... But the Great power system institutionalizes the position of the powerful state in
1760-577: A number of small, wealthy, trade-based city-states embraced republican ideals, notably across Italy and the Baltic. In general, these mercantile republics arose in regions of Europe where feudal control by an absolutist monarchy was minimal or absent completely. In these mercantile republics, the leaders were elected by the citizenry with the primary duty of increasing the city-state's collective wealth. Many political systems can be described as socioeconomic ideologies. Experience with those movements in power and
1870-539: A one-size-fits-all approach. Also during his time in Berlin , Ranke became the first historian to use the forty-seven volumes that comprised the diplomatic archives of Venice from the 16th and 17th centuries. Since many archives opened up during this time, he sent out his students to these places to recruit information. In his classrooms, he would discuss the sources that his students would find and would emphasize that history should be told "the way it happened". Therefore, he
1980-492: A political force exerting an effect co-extensive with the widest range of the society in which it operates. The Great powers of 1914 were 'world-powers' because Western society had recently become 'world-wide'." Other suggestions have been made that a great power should have the capacity to engage in extra-regional affairs and that a great power ought to be possessed of extra-regional interests, two propositions which are often closely connected. Formal or informal acknowledgment of
2090-411: A series of lectures given before future King Maximilian II of Bavaria in 1854, Ranke argued that "every age is next to God", by which he meant that every period of history is unique and must be understood in its own context. He argued that God gazes over history in its totality and finds all periods equal. Ranke rejected the teleological approach to history, by which each period is considered inferior to
2200-689: A short book entitled Die Serbische Revolution (1829) from material supplied to him by Vuk Karadžić , a Serb who had himself been witness to the scenes he related during the First Serbian Uprising in 1804. This was afterwards expanded into Serbien und die Turkei im 19 Jahrhundert (1879). Defunct Defunct At the behest of the Prussian government, Ranke founded and edited the Historische-Politische Zeitschrift journal from 1832 to 1836. Ranke, who
2310-488: A short span of experience. For his personal development requires that great events complete their course before his eyes, that others collapse, that new forms be attempted. After Ranke's death, Syracuse University purchased his collection. The Ranke Library of 25,000 books and other materials was ten times as large as the university's own. At the core of his method, Ranke did not believe that general theories could cut across time and space. Instead, he made statements about
SECTION 20
#17327659899072420-429: A single, vastly powerful corporation deposes a weak government, over time or in a coup d'état . Some political scientists have also considered state socialist nations to be forms of corporate republics, with the state assuming full control of all economic and political life and establishing a monopoly on everything within national boundaries – effectively making the state itself amount to a giant corporation. Probably
2530-683: 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. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato discusses in the Republic five types of regimes: aristocracy , timocracy , oligarchy , democracy, and tyranny . The question raised by Plato in the Republic : What kind of state is best? Generational changes informed by new political and cultural beliefs, technological progress, values and morality over millenniums have resulted in considerable shifts in
2640-638: A superpower . Permanent membership of the UN Security Council is widely regarded as being a central tenet of great power status in the modern world; Brazil, Germany, India and Japan form the G4 nations which support one another (and have varying degrees of support from the existing permanent members) in becoming permanent members. The G4 is opposed by the Italian-led Uniting for Consensus group. There are however few signs that reform of
2750-570: A variety of forms of anarchy that attempt to discourage the use of coercion, violence, force and authority, while still producing a productive and desirable society. More generally, random selection of decision makers from a larger group is known as sortition (from the Latin base for lottery). The Athenian democracy made much use of sortition, with nearly all government offices filled by lottery (of full citizens) rather than by election. Candidates were almost always male, Greek, educated citizens holding
2860-482: A web of rights and obligations." This approach restricts analysis to the epoch following the Congress of Vienna at which great powers were first formally recognized. In the absence of such a formal act of recognition it has been suggested that great power status can arise by implication by judging the nature of a state's relations with other great powers. A further option is to examine a state's willingness to act as
2970-401: Is appointed by the president or elected by the parliament and handles daily administration. The term semi-presidential distinguishes this system from presidential and parliamentary systems. A directorial republic is a government system with power divided among a college of several people who jointly exercise the powers of a head of state and/or a head of government. In the early Renaissance,
3080-612: Is considerable debate on the exact criteria of great power status. Historically, the status of great powers has been formally recognized in organizations such as the Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 or the United Nations Security Council , of which permanent members are: China , France , Russia , the United Kingdom , and the United States . The United Nations Security Council, NATO Quint ,
3190-492: Is defined more broadly. For example, a 2010 International Alert publication defined anocracies as "countries that are neither autocratic nor democratic, most of which are making the risky transition between autocracy and democracy". Alert noted that the number of anocracies had increased substantially since the end of the Cold War. Anocracy is not surprisingly the least resilient political system to short-term shocks: it creates
3300-449: Is extracted from her discussion of these three dimensions, including all of the citations. Early writings on the subject tended to judge states by the realist criterion, as expressed by the historian A. J. P. Taylor when he noted that "The test of a great power is the test of strength for war." Later writers have expanded this test, attempting to define power in terms of overall military, economic, and political capacity. Kenneth Waltz ,
3410-579: Is from the third century, when the Persian prophet Mani described Rome , China , Aksum , and Persia as the four greatest kingdoms of his time. During the Napoleonic wars in Europe, American diplomat James Monroe observed that, "The respect which one power has for another is in exact proportion of the means which they respectively have of injuring each other." The term "great power" first appears at
Great power - Misplaced Pages Continue
3520-548: Is most notable in areas where the European Union has exclusive competence (i.e. economic affairs). It also reflects a non-traditional conception of Europe's world role as a global "civilian power", exercising collective influence in the functional spheres of trade and diplomacy, as an alternative to military dominance. The European Union is a supranational union and not a sovereign state and does not have its own foreign affairs or defence policies; these remain largely with
3630-537: Is often seen as "the pioneer of a critical historical science". Meanwhile, Ranke came to prefer dealing with primary sources as opposed to secondary sources. It was in Vienna where the friendship of Friedrich von Gentz and the protection of Klemens von Metternich opened to him the Venetian Archives, a fresh source, the value of which he first discovered; it is still not exhausted. He found time to write
3740-495: Is portrayed primarily in science fiction settings. Examples from popular culture include Gaia in Appleseed Leopold von Ranke Leopold von Ranke (21 December 1795 – 23 May 1886) was a German historian and a founder of modern source -based history . He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of historical documents. Building on
3850-519: The Crusades and colonization that in Ranke's view bound all of the nations together to produce modern European civilization. Despite his opening statement, Ranke largely treated all of the nations under examination separately until the outbreak of the wars for the control of Italy starting in 1494. However, the book is best remembered for Ranke's comment: "To history has been assigned the office of judging
3960-776: The G7 , the BRICS , and the Contact Group have all been described as great power concerts. A 2017 study by the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies qualified China, Europe, India, Japan, Russia and the United States as the current great powers. With continuing European integration , the European Union is increasingly being seen as a great power in its own right, with representation at the WTO and at G7 and G-20 summits. This
4070-487: The G7 , the BRICS , and the Contact Group have all been described as great power concerts. The term "great power" was first used to represent the most important powers in Europe during the post- Napoleonic era. The "Great Powers" constituted the " Concert of Europe " and claimed the right to joint enforcement of the postwar treaties. The formalization of the division between small powers and great powers came about with
4180-538: The Israelites . By the time of his death in Berlin in 1886 at the age of 90, Ranke had reached only the 12th century, but his assistants later used his notes to take the series up to 1453. After his wife died in 1871, Ranke became half-blind, depending on assistants to read to him. A diary entry from January 1877 contains his mature thoughts about being a historian: The proverb tells us that poets are born. Not only in
4290-864: The Locarno Treaties , which made it a member of the League of Nations, and later left (and withdrew from the League in 1933 ); Japan left, and the Soviet Union joined. When World War II began in 1939, it divided the world into two alliances: the Allies (initially the United Kingdom and France, and Poland, followed in 1941 by the Soviet Union , China, and the United States) and the Axis powers ( Germany , Italy, and Japan). During World War II,
4400-706: The Risorgimento era , Japan during the Meiji era , and the United States after its civil war . By 1900, the balance of world power had changed substantially since the Congress of Vienna. The Eight-Nation Alliance was an alliance of eight nations created in response to the Boxer Rebellion in China. It formed in 1900 and consisted of the five Congress powers plus Italy, Japan, and the United States, representing
4510-561: The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons , and maintain military expenditures which are among the largest in the world. However, there is no unanimous agreement among authorities as to the current status of these powers or what precisely defines a great power. For example, following the Cold War and the two decades after it, some sources referred to China, France, Russia and the United Kingdom as middle powers. Following
Great power - Misplaced Pages Continue
4620-483: The United Nations Security Council . Since the end of the World Wars, the term "great power" has been joined by a number of other power classifications. Foremost among these is the concept of the superpower, used to describe those nations with overwhelming power and influence in the rest of the world. It was first coined in 1944 by William T. R. Fox and according to him, there were three superpowers: Great Britain,
4730-523: The dissolution of the Soviet Union , its UN Security Council permanent seat was transferred to the Russian Federation in 1991, as its largest successor state . The newly formed Russian Federation emerged on the level of a great power, leaving the United States as the only remaining global superpower (although some support a multipolar world view ). Japan and Germany are great powers too, though due to their large advanced economies (having
4840-488: The member states , which include France, Germany and, before Brexit , the United Kingdom (referred to collectively as the " EU three "). Brazil and India are widely regarded as emerging powers with the potential to be great powers. Political scientist Stephen P. Cohen asserts that India is an emerging power, but highlights that some strategists consider India to be already a great power. Some academics such as Zbigniew Brzezinski and David A. Robinson already regard India as
4950-438: The military , and the police force , would be privatised . The social welfare function carried out by the state is instead carried out by corporations in the form of benefits to employees. Although corporate republics do not exist officially in the modern world, they are often used in works of fiction or political commentary as a warning of the perceived dangers of unbridled capitalism . In such works, they usually arise when
5060-636: The third and fourth largest economies respectively) rather than their strategic and hard power capabilities (i.e., the lack of permanent seats and veto power on the UN Security Council or strategic military reach). Germany has been a member together with the five permanent Security Council members in the P5+1 grouping of world powers. Like China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom; Germany and Japan have also been referred to as middle powers. In his 2014 publication Great Power Peace and American Primacy , Joshua Baron considers China, France, Russia, Germany, Japan,
5170-417: The Cold War, Japan, France, the United Kingdom and West Germany rebuilt their economies. France and the United Kingdom maintained technologically advanced armed forces with power projection capabilities and maintain large defense budgets to this day. Yet, as the Cold War continued, authorities began to question if France and the United Kingdom could retain their long-held statuses as great powers. China, with
5280-519: The Congress of Vienna in 1815. The Congress established the Concert of Europe as an attempt to preserve peace after the years of Napoleonic Wars . Lord Castlereagh , the British foreign secretary , first used the term in its diplomatic context, writing on 13 February 1814: "there is every prospect of the Congress terminating with a general accord and Guarantee between the Great powers of Europe, with
5390-744: The International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG) grouping of world powers. Some analysts assert that Italy is an "intermittent" or the " Least of the Great Powers ", while some others believe Italy is a middle or regional power. International relations academics Gabriele Abbondanza and Thomas Wilkins have classified Italy as an "awkward" great power on account of its top-tier economic, military, political, and socio-cultural capabilities and credentials - including its G7 and NATO Quint membership - which are moderated by its lack of national nuclear weapons and permanent membership to
5500-760: The Irish woman Clarissa Helena Graves (born 1808) from Dublin in July 1843. She had been educated in England and the Continent. They were engaged on 1 October and married in Bowness , England in a ceremony officiated by her brother Robert Perceval Graves , an Anglican priest. From 1847 to 1848, Ranke published Neun Bücher preußischer Geschichte (translated as Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg and History of Prussia, during
5610-497: The People's Republic of China. China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States are often referred to as great powers by academics due to "their political and economic dominance of the global arena". These five nations are the only states to have permanent seats with veto power on the UN Security Council. They are also the only state entities to have met the conditions to be considered " Nuclear Weapons States " under
SECTION 50
#17327659899075720-554: The Postwar Period', the French historian Jean-Baptiste Duroselle spoke of the concept of multi-polarity: "A Great power is one which is capable of preserving its own independence against any other single power." This differed from earlier writers, notably from Leopold von Ranke , who clearly had a different idea of the world situation. In his essay 'The Great Powers', written in 1833, von Ranke wrote: "If one could establish as
5830-946: The Reformation in Germany ( Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation ), using the ninety-six volumes of correspondence from ambassadors to the Imperial Diet he found in Frankfurt to explain the Reformation in Germany as the result of both politics and religion. From 1859 to 1867, Ranke published the six-volume History of England Principally in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries ( Englische Geschichte vornehmlich im XVI and XVII Jahrhundert ), followed by an expanded nine-volume edition from 1870 to 1884, which extended his huge reach even farther. At this point, he
5940-698: The School of International Relations and Professor of Strategic Studies at the University of St. Andrews , criticizes the concept of a great power, arguing that it is dated, vaguely defined, and inconsistently applied. He states that the term is used to "describe everything from true superpowers such as the United States and China, which wield the full spectrum of economic, technological, and military might, to better-than-average military powers such as Russia, which have nuclear weapons but little else that would be considered indicators of great power. " O'Brien advocates for
6050-576: The Security Council will happen in the near future. List of forms of government This article lists forms of government and political systems , which are not mutually exclusive , and often have much overlap. According to Yale professor Juan José Linz there are 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
6160-715: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries ) in which he examined the fortunes of the Hohenzollern family and state from the Middle Ages to the reign of Frederick the Great . Many Prussian nationalists were offended by Ranke's portrayal of Prussia as a typical medium-sized German state rather than as a great power. From 1852 to 1861, Ranke published French History Mainly in the 16th and 17th Centuries (5 vols.), covering Francis I to Louis XIV and gaining him more praise for his impartiality despite being German. In
6270-519: The Treaty of Neuilly, with Bulgaria; the Treaty of Trianon, with Hungary; and the Treaty of Sèvres, with the Ottoman Empire . During the decision-making of the Treaty of Versailles , Italy pulled out of the conference because a part of its demands were not met and temporarily left the other three countries as the sole major architects of that treaty, referred to as the "Big Three". The status of
6380-427: The UN Security Council. In addition to these contemporary great powers mentioned above, Zbigniew Brzezinski considers India to be a great power. However, there is no collective agreement among observers as to the status of India, for example, a number of academics believe that India is emerging as a great power, while some believe that India remains a middle power. The United Nations Security Council, NATO Quint ,
6490-486: The US had recently slipped: All states have a geographic scope of interests, actions, or projected power. This is a crucial factor in distinguishing a great power from a regional power; by definition, the scope of a regional power is restricted to its region. It has been suggested that a great power should be possessed of actual influence throughout the scope of the prevailing international system. Arnold J. Toynbee , for example, observes that "Great power may be defined as
6600-607: The US, UK, USSR, and China were referred as a "trusteeship of the powerful" and were recognized as the Allied " Big Four " in Declaration by United Nations in 1942. These four countries were referred as the " Four Policemen " of the Allies and considered as the primary victors of World War II. The importance of France was acknowledged by their inclusion, along with the other four, in the group of countries allotted permanent seats in
6710-449: The United Kingdom and the United States as the current great powers. Italy has been referred to as a great power by a number of academics and commentators throughout the post-WWII era. The American international legal scholar Milena Sterio writes: The great powers are super-sovereign states: an exclusive club of the most powerful states economically, militarily, politically and strategically. These states include veto-wielding members of
SECTION 60
#17327659899076820-566: The United Nations Security Council (United States, United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia), as well as economic powerhouses such as Germany, Italy and Japan. Sterio also cites Italy's status in the Group of Seven (G7) and the nation's influence in regional and international organizations for its status as a great power. Italy has been a member together with the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany in
6930-655: The United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc , which began following World War II. The term " cold " is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers , but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars . The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany in 1945. During
7040-417: The United States, and the Soviet Union. But after World War II Britain lost its superpower status. The term middle power has emerged for those nations which exercise a degree of global influence but are insufficient to be decisive on international affairs. Regional powers are those whose influence is generally confined to their region of the world. The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between
7150-494: The ancient authors into German . His teachers included Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann . As a student, Ranke's favorite authors were Thucydides , Livy , Dionysius of Halicarnassus , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Barthold Georg Niebuhr , Immanuel Kant , Johann Gottlieb Fichte , Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Friedrich Schlegel . Ranke showed little interest in the work of modern history because of his dissatisfaction with what he regarded as history books that were merely
7260-471: The arts, but even in some scholarly fields, young men develop into full bloom, or at least display their originality. Musicians and mathematicians have the expectation of attaining eminence in early years. But a historian must be old, not only because of the immeasurable extent of his field of study, but because of the insight into the historical process which a long life confers, especially under changing conditions. It would hardly be bearable for him to have only
7370-417: The assessor. However, this approach has the disadvantage of subjectivity. As a result, there have been attempts to derive some common criteria and to treat these as essential elements of great power status. Danilovic (2002) highlights three central characteristics, which she terms as "power, spatial, and status dimensions," that distinguish major powers from other states. The following section ("Characteristics")
7480-447: The behest of the sultan and generally only required a tax from the lower classes, instead of military service and/or manual labour like in the feudal system. Governments can also be categorized based on their size and scope of influence: 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
7590-453: The belief about the origination of political authority, who may participate in matters of state, how people might participate, the determination of what is just, and so forth. Index of Forms of Government. Systems resembling anarchism can be a natural, temporary result of civil war in a country, when an established state has been destroyed and the region is in a transitional period without definitive leadership. It has also been proposed as
7700-508: 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. ( Ancient Greek ὀλιγαρχία (oligarkhía) literally meant rule by few") Some historical examples of oligarchy include the Roman Republic , in which only males of the nobility could run for office and only wealthy males could vote, and the Athenian democracy , which used sortition to elect candidates, almost always male, Greek, educated citizens holding
7810-510: The concept of a "full-spectrum power", which takes into account "all the fundamentals on which superior military power is built", including economic resources, domestic politics and political systems (which can restrain or expand dimensions of power), technological capabilities, and social and cultural factors (such as a society's willingness to go to war or invest in military development). Various sets of great, or significant, powers have existed throughout history. An early reference to great powers
7920-450: The dawn of the 20th century had served to create an entirely different balance of power. Great Britain and the new German Empire (from 1871), experienced continued economic growth and political power. Others, such as Russia and Austria-Hungary, stagnated. At the same time, other states were emerging and expanding in power, largely through the process of industrialization. These countries seeking to attain great power status were: Italy after
8030-407: The distribution of sovereignty , and the autonomy of regions within the state. These have no conclusive historical or current examples outside of speculation and scholarly debate. While retaining some semblance of republican government, a corporate republic would be run primarily like a business , involving a board of directors and executives . Utilities , including hospitals , schools ,
8140-428: The elderly. Social democracy is connected with the trade union labour movement and supports collective bargaining rights for workers. Contemporary social democracy advocates freedom from discrimination based on differences of: ability/disability, age, ethnicity, sex, language, religion, and social class. Oligarchies are societies controlled and organised by a small class of privileged people, with no intervention from
8250-503: The extent of its overseas empire , which ushered in a century of Pax Britannica . The balance of power between the Great Powers became a major influence in European politics, prompting Otto von Bismarck to say "All politics reduces itself to this formula: try to be one of three, as long as the world is governed by the unstable equilibrium of five great powers." Over time, the relative power of these five nations fluctuated, which by
8360-410: The facts and find the essences behind them. Under this view, the word eigentlich should be translated as "essentially", the aim then being to "show what essentially happened". Ranke went on to write that the historian must seek the "Holy hieroglyph" that is God's hand in history, keeping an "eye for the universal" whilst taking "pleasure in the particular". While Ranke's methods remain influential in
8470-559: The following period. Thus, the Middle Ages were not inferior to the Renaissance , simply different. In Ranke's view, historians had to understand a period and its terms and seek to find only the general ideas that animated every period of history. For Ranke, history was not to be an account of man's "progress" because "[a]fter Plato, there can be no more Plato". Ultimately, "[h]istory is no criminal court". For Ranke, Christianity
8580-407: The formal government. These are terms that highlight certain actions of the governors, such as corruption , demagoguery , or fear mongering that may disrupt the intended way of working of the government if they are widespread enough. The Polity IV dataset recognizes anocracy as a category. In that dataset, anocracies are exactly in the middle between autocracies and democracies. Often the word
8690-422: The founder of the neorealist theory of international relations, uses a set of six criteria to determine great power: population and territory, resource endowment, military strength, economic capability, political stability and competence. John Mearsheimer defines great powers as those that "have sufficient military assets to put up a serious fight in an all-out conventional war against the most powerful state in
8800-421: The great powers at the beginning of the 20th century. Shifts of international power have most notably occurred through major conflicts. The conclusion of World War I and the resulting treaties of Versailles , St-Germain , Neuilly , Trianon , and Sèvres made Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States the chief arbiters of the new world order. The German Empire was defeated, Austria-Hungary
8910-697: The ideas of the French Revolution , which Ranke claimed were meant for France only. From 1834 to 1836, Ranke published Die römischen Päpste, ihre Kirche und ihr Staat im sechzehnten und siebzehnten Jahrhundert ( The Popes of Rome, Their Church and State in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries ) (3 vols.). As a Protestant, Ranke was barred from viewing the Vatican Secret Archive in Rome , but based on private papers in Rome and Venice, he
9020-806: The lives of men and history, a viewpoint that shaped his ideas that the German Empire was a manifestation of God's intent. Ranke was born in Wiehe , Thuringia , Saxony . Wiehe was then a part of the Electorate of Saxony . He came from a family of Lutheran pastors and lawyers. He was educated partly at home and partly in the high school at Schulpforta . His early years engendered a lifelong love of Ancient Greek , Latin and Lutheranism . In 1814, Ranke entered Leipzig University , where his subjects were Classics and Lutheran theology . At Leipzig , Ranke became an expert in philology and translation of
9130-469: The methods of the Göttingen school of history , he was the first to establish a historical seminar. Ranke set the standards for much of later historical writing, introducing such ideas as reliance on primary sources ( empiricism ), an emphasis on narrative history and especially international politics ( Außenpolitik ). He was ennobled in 1865, with the addition of a "von" to his name. Ranke also had
9240-403: The monarch, who mostly rule kingdoms. The actual role of the monarch and other members of royalty varies from purely symbolical ( crowned republic ) to partial and restricted ( constitutional monarchy ) to completely despotic ( absolute monarchy ). Traditionally and in most cases, the post of the monarch is inherited , but there are also elective monarchies where the monarch is elected. Rule by
9350-694: The most infamous secret society is the Illuminati , who had in their general statutes, "The order of the day is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them." Secret societies are illegal in several countries, including Italy and Poland , who ban secret political parties and political organizations in their constitutions. Secret societies are often portrayed in fiction settings. Some examples from popular culture include: Magocracies are portrayed primarily in fiction and fantasy settings. Some examples from popular culture include: Synthetic technocracy
9460-437: The most part of society; this small elite is defined as sharing some common trait. De jure democratic governments with a de facto oligarchy are ruled by a small group of segregated, powerful or influential people who usually share similar interests 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
9570-492: The outcome and resolution. Historically, when major political questions were addressed, several great powers met to discuss them. Before the era of groups like the United Nations, participants of such meetings were not officially named but rather were decided based on their great power status. These were conferences that settled important questions based on major historical events. Historian Phillips P. O'Brien , Head of
9680-431: The past, of instructing the present for the benefit of future ages. To such high offices this work does not aspire: It wants only to show what actually happened ( wie es eigentlich gewesen )". Ranke's statement that history should embrace the principle of wie es eigentlich gewesen (meaning "how things actually were") was subsequently taken by many historians as their guiding principle. There has been much debate over
9790-414: The people rule, as republican forms of government. These categories are not exclusive. A semi-presidential republic is a government system with power divided between a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government, used in countries like France , Portugal , and Ukraine . The president, elected by the people, symbolizes national unity and foreign policy while the prime minister
9900-512: The political and religious issues in that century. The British Catholic historian Lord Acton defended Ranke's book as the most fair-minded, balanced and objective study ever written on the papacy of the 16th century. In 1841, his fame in its ascendancy, Ranke was appointed Historiographer Royal to the Prussian court. In 1845, he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences . In Paris, Ranke met
10010-440: The practice of history, his broader ideas of historiography and empiricism are now regarded by some as outdated and no longer credible. They held sway among historians until the mid-20th century, when they were challenged by E. H. Carr and Fernand Braudel . Carr opposed Ranke's ideas of empiricism as naive, boring and outmoded, saying that historians did not merely report facts; they choose which facts they use. Braudel's approach
10120-413: The precise meaning of this phrase. Some have argued that adhering to the principle of wie es eigentlich gewesen means that the historian should document facts, but not offer any interpretation of these facts. Following Georg Iggers , Peter Novick has argued that Ranke, who was more of a romantic and idealist than his American contemporaries understood, meant instead that the historian should discover
10230-438: The promise but not yet the actuality of an inclusive and effective political economy, and threatens members of the established elite; and is therefore very vulnerable to disruption and armed violence. Countries with monarchy attributes are those where a family or group of families (rarely another type of group), called the royalty , represents national identity, with power traditionally assigned to one of its individuals, called
10340-415: The signing of the Treaty of Chaumont in 1814. Since then, the international balance of power has shifted numerous times, most dramatically during World War I and World War II . In literature, alternative terms for great power are often world power or major power . There are no set or defined characteristics of a great power. These characteristics have often been treated as empirical, self-evident to
10450-477: The source; but rather on the narratives of eyewitnesses, and on genuine and original documents". The papacy denounced Ranke's book as anti-Catholic. In contrast, many Protestants denounced it as not anti-Catholic enough. Still, historians have generally praised him for placing the situation of the Catholic Church in the context of the 16th century and for his fair treatment of the complex interaction of
10560-464: The strong ties they may have to particular forms of government can cause them to be considered as forms of government in themselves. These categories are not exclusive. A similar system is the Iqta‘ , used by medieval Islamic societies of the middle east and north Africa. This functioned much like the feudal system but generally had titles that weren't granted to a family dynasty but to individuals at
10670-399: The term today. Other powers, such as Spain, Portugal, and Sweden, which were great powers during the 17th century and the earlier 18th century, were consulted on certain specific issues, but they were not full participants. After the Congress of Vienna, Great Britain emerged as the pre-eminent global hegemon, due to it being the first nation to industrialize , possessing the largest navy, and
10780-417: The time using quotations from primary sources, saying: "My understanding of 'leading ideas' is simply that they are the dominant tendencies in each century. However, these tendencies can only be described; they can not, in the last resort, be summed up in a concept". Ranke objected to philosophy of history , particularly as practiced by Hegel, claiming that Hegel ignored the role of human agency in history which
10890-435: The traditions of philology but emphasized mundane documents instead of old and exotic literature. After the minister of education was impressed with the work of a historian who did not have access to the nation's great public libraries, Ranke was given a position in the University of Berlin , where he was a professor for nearly fifty years, starting in 1825. At the university, he used the seminar system and taught how to check
11000-460: The value of sources. Ranke became deeply involved in the dispute between the followers of the legal professor Friedrich Carl von Savigny , who emphasized the varieties of different periods of history, and the followers of the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , who saw history as the unfolding of a universal story. Ranke supported Savigny and criticized the Hegelian view of history as being
11110-512: The victorious great powers were recognised by permanent seats at the League of Nations Council, where they acted as a type of executive body directing the Assembly of the League. However, the council began with only four permanent members – Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan – because the United States, meant to be the fifth permanent member, never joined the League. Germany later joined after
11220-471: The workings of history. In 1824, Ranke launched his career with the book Geschichten der romanischen und germanischen Völker von 1494 bis 1514 ( Histories of the Latin and Teutonic Peoples from 1494 to 1514 ) in which he used an unusually wide variety of sources for a historian of the age, including "memoirs, diaries, personal and formal missives, government documents, diplomatic dispatches and first-hand accounts of eye-witnesses". In that sense, he leaned on
11330-459: The world's largest population, has slowly risen to great power status, with large growth in economic and military power in the post-war period. After 1949, the Republic of China began to lose its recognition as the sole legitimate government of China by the other great powers, in favour of the People's Republic of China. Subsequently, in 1971, it lost its permanent seat at the UN Security Council to
11440-450: The world." As noted above, for many, power capabilities were the sole criterion. However, even under the more expansive tests, power retains a vital place. This aspect has received mixed treatment, with some confusion as to the degree of power required. Writers have approached the concept of great power with differing conceptualizations of the world situation, from multi-polarity to overwhelming hegemony . In his essay, 'French Diplomacy in
11550-400: Was a conservative , used the journal to attack the ideas of liberalism . In his 1833 article "The Great Powers" and his 1836 article "Dialogue on Politics", Ranke claimed that every state is given a special moral character from God and individuals should strive best to fulfill the "idea" of their state. Thus, in this way, Ranke urged his readers to stay loyal to the Prussian state and to reject
11660-499: Was able to explain the history of the papacy in the 16th century. In this book, Ranke coined the term " Counter-Reformation " and offered colorful portrayals of Pope Paul IV , Ignatius of Loyola and Pope Pius V . He promoted research into primary sources: "I see the time approaching when we shall base modern history, no longer on the reports even of contemporary historians, except insofar as they had personal and immediate knowledge of facts; and still less on work yet more remote from
11770-540: Was divided into new, less powerful states and the Russian Empire fell to revolution . During the Paris Peace Conference , the " Big Four " – Great Britain, France, Italy, and the United States – controlled the proceedings and outcome of the treaties more than Japan. The Big Four were the architects of the Treaty of Versailles which was signed by Germany; the Treaty of St. Germain, with Austria;
11880-495: Was eighty years old, and devoted the rest of his career to shorter treatises on German history that supplement his earlier writings. The honors poured in when Ranke was ennobled in 1865, appointed a Prussian Privy Councillor in 1882 and given an honorary citizenship of Berlin in 1885. In 1884, he was appointed the first honorary member of the American Historical Association . In 1885, he was elected as
11990-592: Was morally most superior and could not be improved upon. When he wrote Zur orientalischen Frage. Gutachten at the behest of the Kaiser he framed the conflict with the Ottoman Empire as primarily religious; the civil rights of Christians against Muslims in the Ottoman Empire could only be secured by the intervention of the Christian European nations. From 1854 to 1857, Ranke published History of
12100-460: Was too essential to be "characterized through only one idea or one word" or "circumscribed by a concept". This lack of emphasis on unifying theories or themes led Rudolf Haym to denigrate his ideas as "the mindlessness of the empiricist". In the 19th century, Ranke's work was very popular and his ideas about historical practice gradually became dominant in western historiography. However, he had critics among his contemporaries, including Karl Marx ,
#906093