List of forms of government
91-463: List of forms of government Meritocracy ( merit , from Latin mereō , and -cracy , from Ancient Greek κράτος kratos 'strength, power') is the notion of a political system in which economic goods or political power are vested in individual people based on ability and talent, rather than wealth or social class . Advancement in such a system is based on performance, as measured through examination or demonstrated achievement. Although
182-513: A Shura assembly and choose the caliph based on merit). As the first caliph of the Rashidun caliphate, Abu Bakr was not a monarch and never claimed such a title; nor did any of his three successors. Rather, their election and leadership were based upon merit. After the reforms of Mehmed II , the Ottoman standing army was recruited from the devşirme , a group that took Christian subjects at
273-575: 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
364-655: A "possible remedy: a global tax on wealth". In 2014, he was awarded the British Academy Medal for this book. Capital and Ideology , a book published in 2019, is a successor to Capital in the Twenty-First Century in its themes of inequality of income and wealth. It argues it is necessary to examine the ideological systems which attempted to justify the forms of inequality specific to different institutional configurations, and how these have had an impact, through fiscal and economic policy, on
455-446: A change of rules might be necessary, saying that if countries representing 80% of EU's population or GDP ratify a treaty, it should be approved. He is also in favour of a "credible and bold basic income ", which is one of Benoit Hamon's key proposals, although their views on the matter are different. The call in which Piketty and other economic researchers argue for their version of the basic income has been criticised as not "universal",
546-437: A critical continuation of the pioneering work of Simon Kuznets in the 1950s. According to Kuznets, the long-term evolution of earnings inequalities was shaped as a curve ( Kuznets curve ). Growth started at the beginning of the industrial revolution and slackened off later due to the reallocation of the labor force from low productivity sectors like agriculture to higher productivity sectors like industry. According to Piketty,
637-615: A criticism he answered on his blog. In addition to his research, Piketty also teaches post-graduate students at the LSE. His teaching and research approach is inter-disciplinary, and he has been involved in the teaching of the new MSc degree in Inequalities and Social Science at the LSE. Piketty continues to address "la gauche" as if from a leadership position. He instructed the Nouveau Front Populaire , born in 2024 as
728-522: A few months to serve as an economic advisor to Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal during the 2007 French presidential election . Piketty resumed teaching at the EHESS and PSE in 2007. He is a columnist for French center-left-leaning newspaper Libération and regularly writes op-eds for left-leaning newspaper Le Monde . In April 2012, Piketty co-authored along with 42 colleagues an open letter in support of then socialist party candidate for
819-450: A firm "believe[r] in capitalism, private property and the market". Piketty earned a C-stream (scientific) Baccalauréat , and after taking scientific preparatory classes , he entered the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) at the age of 18 where he studied mathematics and economics. At the age of 22, Piketty was awarded his PhD for a thesis on wealth redistribution , which he wrote at the LSE and EHESS under Roger Guesnerie and winning
910-437: 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
1001-549: A fresh and new political economy which will expose austerity for the failure it has been in the UK and Europe, although he was reportedly absent from the first meeting. In June 2016, he resigned from his role in Labour's Economic Advisory Committee, citing concerns over the weak campaign the party had run in the EU referendum . On 2 October 2015, Piketty received an honorary doctorate from
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#17327730213851092-541: 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
1183-586: 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
1274-431: 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
1365-577: 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
1456-509: A political ideology and an illusion. As Thomas Piketty notes in his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century "our democratic societies rest on a meritocratic worldview". Accordingly, restricted mobility and the significance of inherited wealth co-exist with the belief in a meritocratic system. Consequently, "the idea of meritocracy has become a key means of cultural legitimation for contemporary capitalist culture", in which wealth and income inequalities are being perpetuated and reproduced. This
1547-529: A progressive global tax on wealth. A research project on high incomes in France led to the book Les hauts revenus en France au XXe siècle ( High incomes in France in the 20th Century , Grasset, 2001), which was based on a survey of statistical series covering the whole of the 20th century, built from data from the fiscal services (particularly income tax declarations). He extended this analysis in his immensely popular book Le Capital au XXIe siècle ( Capital in
1638-492: A researcher, and in 2000 he became a professor (directeur d'études) at EHESS. Piketty won the 2002 prize for the best young economist in France , and according to a list dated 11 November 2003, he is a member of the scientific orientation board of the association À gauche, en Europe , founded by Michel Rocard and Dominique Strauss-Kahn . In 2006, Piketty became the first head of the PSE, which he helped organize. He left after
1729-426: A result of Emmanuel Macron 's tergiversations, to describe the alternative economic system to which it aspires. Piketty specializes in economic inequality , taking a historic and statistical approach. His work looks at the rate of capital accumulation in relation to economic growth over a two hundred year spread from the nineteenth century to the present. His novel use of tax records enabled him to gather data on
1820-479: A result of their merits. And since the Safavid society was meritocratic, government offices constantly felt the pressure of being under surveillance and had to make sure they governed in the best interest of their leader, and not merely their own. The concept of meritocracy spread from China to British India during the seventeenth century. The first European power to implement a successful meritocratic civil service
1911-400: A result of their talent and effort. This conception presupposes social mobility and equality of opportunity. On the other hand, meritocracy can be understood as an ideological discourse grounded in different belief systems, that manifest themselves in different forms such as social democratic and neoliberal conceptions of meritocracy. The most common form of meritocratic screening found today
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#17327730213852002-429: 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
2093-683: 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
2184-402: A system under which advancement within the system turns on "merits", like performance, intelligence, credentials , and education. These are often determined through evaluations or examinations. In a more general sense, meritocracy can refer to any form of evaluation based on achievement. Like " utilitarian " and " pragmatic ", the word "meritocratic" has also developed a broader connotation, and
2275-570: 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
2366-404: A young age (8–20 yrs): they were converted to Islam, then schooled for administration or the military Janissaries . This was a meritocracy which "produced from among their alumni four out of five Grand Viziers from this time on". Mehmed II's first grand vizier was Zaganos Pasha , who was of devşirme background as opposed to an aristocrat, and Zaganos Pasha's successor, Mahmud Pasha Angelović ,
2457-634: Is a much shorter book about wealth redistribution intended for a target audience of citizens instead of economists. Piketty was born in the Parisian suburb of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine . His parents had been involved with a Trotskyist group and the May 1968 protests in Paris but they had moved away from this political position before Piketty was born. A visit to the Soviet Union in 1991 was enough to make him
2548-511: Is a much shorter book about wealth redistribution intended for a target audience of citizens not economists, in which he traced a history of equality from 1780 to 2020. In August 2022, Piketty was interviewed about the book for New Books Network . Thomas Piketty was the partner of the politician Aurélie Filippetti . In 2009, she filed a complaint of domestic violence to the police against Piketty; she later withdrew her complaint after he acknowledged facts of domestic violence. Additionally, he
2639-401: 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,
2730-492: 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
2821-407: Is not the "stolid mass" or majority, but the "creative minority" or members of the "restless elite". On the other hand, he claims that there are casualties of progress whose influence is underestimated and that, from such stolid adherence to natural science and intelligence, arises arrogance and complacency. This problem is encapsulated in the phrase "Every selection of one is a rejection of many". It
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2912-415: Is nowadays applied to merit-based systems of status and reward allocation in distinction to aristocratic or class-based systems, in which inherited factors are the primary determinant for the position of an individual in society. Yet, the concept of meritocracy as a social system has also attracted much criticism. In light of the rising social inequality in the 21st century, scholars have labelled meritocracy
3003-496: Is persistently greater than the rate of economic growth, and that this will cause wealth inequality to increase in the future. Piketty proposes improving the education systems and considers diffusion of knowledge, diffusion of skills, diffusion of idea of productivity as the main mechanism that will lead to lower inequality. In 2019, his book Capital and Ideology was published, which focuses on income inequality in various societies in history. His 2022 A Brief History of Equality
3094-700: Is portrayed primarily in science fiction settings. Examples from popular culture include Gaia in Appleseed Thomas Piketty Thomas Piketty ( French: [tɔmɑ pikɛti] ; born 7 May 1971) is a French economist who is a professor of economics at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences , associate chair at the Paris School of Economics (PSE) and Centennial Professor of Economics in
3185-462: Is sometimes used to refer to any government run by "a ruling or influential class of educated or able people". This is in contrast to the original, condemnatory use of the term in 1958 by Michael Dunlop Young in his work The Rise of the Meritocracy , who was satirizing the ostensibly merit-based Tripartite System of education practiced in the United Kingdom at the time; he claimed that, in
3276-439: Is supported by recent research which shows that, the more unequal a society, the higher the tendency of members of that society to attribute success to meritocracy rather than non-meritocratic variables such as inherited wealth. This illustrates that the contemporary conception of meritocracy is at least twofold. On the one hand, it describes a social system based on the notion that individuals are rewarded and advance in society as
3367-498: Is the college degree. Higher education is an imperfect meritocratic screening system for various reasons, such as lack of uniform standards worldwide, lack of scope (not all occupations and processes are included), and lack of access (some talented people never have an opportunity to participate because of the expenses, disasters or war, most especially in developing countries , health issues or disability). Nonetheless, academic degrees serve some amount of meritocratic screening purpose in
3458-832: Is the sum of intelligence and energy; while, for Ieva it is represented by the function between intelligence, culture and experience, to which energy is then added. Imperial China Republic of China (before 1949) People's Republic of China (Mainland) Hong Kong (pro-Beijing) Macau (pro-Beijing) Republic of China (Taiwan, pan-Blue) Hong Kong (pro-Beijing) Hong Kong (centrist) Hong Kong (pro-ROC) Macau (pro-Beijing) Republic of China (Taiwan, pan-Blue) Republic of China (Taiwan, pro-Beijing) Republic of China (Taiwan, other) Hong Kong (pro-Beijing) Hong Kong (pro-ROC) Republic of China (Taiwan, pan-Blue) Republic of China (Taiwan, other) People's Republic of China (Mainland) Hong Kong Republic of China (Taiwan) Overseas Former Some of
3549-463: The Qin and Han dynasties developed a meritocratic system in order to maintain power over a large, sprawling empire, it became necessary for the government to maintain a complex network of officials. Prospective officials could come from a rural background and government positions were not restricted to the nobility. Rank was determined by merit, through the civil service examinations , and education became
3640-771: The University of Johannesburg and on 3 October 2015 he delivered the 13th Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture at the University of Johannesburg. In 2015, Piketty was also elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society . Piketty joined the LSE in 2015 as the distinguished Centennial Professor. Piketty continues his research as part of the LSE International Inequalities Institute. His economic research focusses mainly on wealth inequalities and
3731-438: 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
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3822-486: The "Chinese mandarin system". 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
3913-544: The British-run East India Company ... company managers hired and promoted employees based on competitive examinations in order to prevent corruption and favoritism. Both Plato and Aristotle advocated meritocracy, Plato in his The Republic , arguing that the wisest should rule, and hence the rulers should be philosopher kings . The Rashidun caliphate succession rule was based on meritocracy (Most renown people for their merit would gather in
4004-546: The English-speaking world and continental Europe. Saez won the prestigious John Bates Clark prize for this work. The surveys found that following the Second World War , after initially undergoing a decrease in economic inequality similar to that in continental Europe, English-speaking countries have, over the past thirty years, experienced increasing inequalities. Piketty's work has been discussed as
4095-764: The French Legion of Honour order , stating that he refused the nomination because he did not think it was the government's role to decide who is honourable. On 27 September 2015, it was announced that he had been appointed to the British Labour Party's Economic Advisory Committee , convened by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and reporting to Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn . The appointment of Piketty, who had previously advised Lord Wood , key policy advisor to former Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband , that tax rates could be raised above 50% for earnings over one million pounds without it impacting
4186-652: The French Economics Association's award for the best thesis of the year. He also met Daron Acemoglu for the first time at the LSE, who was also a PhD student at the time. After earning his PhD, Piketty taught from 1993 to 1995 as an assistant professor in the department of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . In 1995, he joined the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) as
4277-597: The French pension system and the French tax system. In a 2018 paper, Piketty suggested that throughout the Western world, political parties of both the left and the right have been captured by the "elites," coining the terms Brahmin Left and Merchant Right respectively to describe them. According to Piketty, western left-wing parties have lost working-class voters and are now dominated by highly educated voters. Capital in
4368-559: The French presidency François Hollande . Hollande won the contest against the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in May of that year. Piketty was unimpressed by Hollande's tenure, later describing him as "hopeless". In 2013, Piketty won the biennial Yrjö Jahnsson Award , for the economist under age 45 who has "made a contribution in theoretical and applied research that is significant to the study of economics in Europe." In January 2015, he rejected
4459-586: The Government and People of China , published in 1847, that "the long duration of the Chinese empire is solely and altogether owing to the good government which consists in the advancement of men of talent and merit only", and that the British must reform their civil service by making the institution meritocratic. This practice later was adopted in the late nineteenth century by the British mainland, inspired by
4550-604: The International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics (LSE). Piketty's work focuses on public economics , in particular income and wealth inequality. He is the author of the best-selling book Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013), which emphasises the themes of his work on wealth concentrations and distribution over the past 250 years. The book argues that the rate of capital return in developed countries
4641-419: The Meritocracy . For Young, merit is defined as intelligence plus effort. As a result, he portrays a fictional meritocratic society as a dystopia, in which social stratification is based solely on intelligence and individual merit, which creates a highly competitive and unequal society. Despite this initial negative connotation, the term meritocracy has gained some positive recognition more recently. As such, it
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#17327730213854732-528: The Meritocracy . Young's essay pictured the United Kingdom under the rule of a government favouring intelligence and aptitude (merit) above all else, being the combination of the root of Latin origin " merit " (from " mereō " meaning "earn") and the Ancient Greek suffix " -cracy " (meaning "power", "rule"). The purely Greek word is axiocracy ( αξιοκρατία ), from axios ( αξιος , worthy) + " -cracy " ( -κρατία , power). In this book
4823-518: The Tripartite System, "merit is equated with intelligence-plus-effort, its possessors are identified at an early age and selected for appropriate intensive education, and there is an obsession with quantification, test-scoring, and qualifications". Meritocracy in its wider sense, may be any general act of judgment upon the basis of various demonstrated merits; such acts frequently are described in sociology and psychology . In rhetoric ,
4914-418: The Twenty-First Century ). A study by Emmanuel Saez and Piketty showed that the top 10 percent of earners took more than half of the country's total income in 2012, the highest level recorded since the government began collecting the relevant data a century ago. Piketty's work shows that differences in earnings dropped sharply during the 20th century in France, mostly after World War II. He argues that this
5005-565: The Twenty-First Century , published in 2013, focuses on wealth and income inequality in Europe and the US since the 18th century. The book's central thesis is that inequality is not an accident but rather a feature of capitalism that can be reversed only through state intervention. The book thus argues that unless capitalism is reformed, the very democratic order will be threatened. The book reached number one on The New York Times bestselling hardcover nonfiction list from 18 May 2014. Piketty offered
5096-459: The United States over the last thirty years, returning to their 1930s level. Besides these surveys, which make up the core of his work, Piketty has published in other areas, often with a connection to economic inequalities. His work on schools, for example, postulates that disparities among different schools, especially class sizes, are a cause for the persistence of inequalities in wages and the economy. He has also published proposals for changes in
5187-486: The absence of a more refined methodology. Education alone, however, does not constitute a complete system, as meritocracy must automatically confer power and authority, which a degree does not accomplish independently. Although the concept has existed for centuries, the term "meritocracy" is relatively new. It was first used pejoratively by sociologist Alan Fox in 1956, and then by British politician and sociologist Michael Dunlop Young in his 1958 satirical essay The Rise of
5278-421: The basis of worth and merit, and not on the basis of birth. It was certainly not an oligarchy , nor was it an aristocracy . Sons of nobles were considered for the succession of their fathers as a mark of respect, but they had to prove themselves worthy of the position. This system avoided an entrenched aristocracy or a caste society. There are numerous recorded accounts of laymen that rose to high official posts as
5369-447: 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
5460-453: 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
5551-626: 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
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#17327730213855642-423: The concept of meritocracy has existed for centuries, the first known use of the term was by sociologist Alan Fox in the journal Socialist Commentary in 1956. It was then popularized by sociologist Michael Dunlop Young , who used the term in his dystopian political and satirical book The Rise of the Meritocracy in 1958. While the word was coined and popularized as a pejorative , its usage has meliorated. Today
5733-540: The demonstration of one's merit regarding mastery of a particular subject is an essential task most directly related to the Aristotelian term Ethos . The equivalent Aristotelian conception of meritocracy is based upon aristocratic or oligarchic structures, rather than in the context of the modern state . To this day, the origin of the term meritocracy is widely attributed to the British sociologist Michael Young, who used it pejoratively in his book The Rise of
5824-407: 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 ,
5915-499: The distribution of wealth and income. Piketty argues that various ideologies arise to defend inequality, and wealth is diverted to sustain these ideologies; however a higher standard of living did not come from the sacralization of property ownership but from social protests. The book contains significant material dedicated to prescriptions for reducing inequality of wealth and income, such as a wealth tax, and to sustaining ideological support for such fiscal and economic policies. This work
6006-468: The earliest example of an administrative meritocracy, based on civil service examinations, dates back to Ancient China . The concept originates, at least by the sixth century BC, when it was advocated by the Chinese philosopher Confucius , who "invented the notion that those who govern should do so because of merit, not of inherited status. This sets in motion the creation of the imperial examinations and bureaucracies open only to those who passed tests". As
6097-487: The economy, was seen as a particular coup for the Labour Party leadership due to his breakthrough success in the mainstream publishing world. Regarding this appointment he stated that he was very happy to take part and assist the Labour Party in constructing an economic policy that helps tackle some of the biggest issues facing people in the UK and that there was a brilliant opportunity for the Labour party to construct
6188-428: 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
6279-526: The financial contribution to society of the wealthy that has been happening in France since the late 1990s will assist in the rebuilding of the earlier large fortunes of the rentier class. This trend will lead to the rise of what he calls patrimonial capitalism, in which a few families control most of the wealth. Through a statistical survey, Piketty also showed that the Laffer effect , which claims that high marginal tax rates on top incomes are an incentive for
6370-407: 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
6461-639: The key for social mobility. After the fall of the Han dynasty, the nine-rank system was established during the Three Kingdoms period. According to the Princeton Encyclopedia of American History : One of the oldest examples of a merit-based civil service system existed in the imperial bureaucracy of China. Tracing back to 200 B.C., the Han dynasty adopted Confucianism as the basis of its political philosophy and structure, which included
6552-403: 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
6643-694: 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
6734-437: 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
6825-414: 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
6916-438: 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
7007-488: The revolutionary idea of replacing nobility of blood with one of virtue and honesty, and thereby calling for administrative appointments to be based solely on merit. This system allowed anyone who passed an examination to become a government officer, a position that would bring wealth and honor to the whole family. In part due to Chinese influence, the first European civil service did not originate in Europe, but rather in India by
7098-409: The rich to work less, was probably negligible in the case of France. Piketty has done comparative work on inequality in other developed countries. In collaboration with other economists, particularly Emmanuel Saez , he built a statistical series based on a similar method used in his studies of France. This research led to reports on the evolution of inequalities in the US, and on economic dynamics in
7189-403: The short (1960 onward) and long term (2020 onward). The essay was based upon the tendency of the then-current governments, in their striving toward intelligence, to ignore shortcomings and upon the failure of education systems to utilize correctly the gifted and talented members within their societies. Young's fictional narrator explains that, on the one hand, the greatest contributor to society
7280-464: 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
7371-452: The tendency observed by Kuznets in the early 1950s is not necessarily a product of deep economic forces (e.g. sectoral spillover or the effects of technological progress). Instead, estate values, rather than wage inequalities, decreased, and they did so for reasons that were not specifically economic (for example, the creation of income tax). Consequently, the decrease would not necessarily continue, and in fact, inequalities have grown sharply in
7462-405: The term had distinctly negative connotations as Young questioned both the legitimacy of the selection process used to become a member of this elite and the outcomes of being ruled by such a narrowly defined group. The essay, written in the first person by a fictional historical narrator in 2034, interweaves history from the politics of pre- and post-war Britain with those of fictional future events in
7553-454: The term is often utilised to refer to social systems in which personal advancement and success primarily reflect an individual's capabilities and merits, frequently seen as equality of opportunity . The "most common definition of meritocracy conceptualizes merit in terms of tested competency and ability, and most likely, as measured by IQ or standardized achievement tests". In government and other administrative systems, "meritocracy" refers to
7644-559: The use of capital in the 21st century. Piketty has long-standing ties to the LSE and he completed his PhD studies at the university in the early 1990s. On 11 February 2017, it was announced that he had joined the Parti Socialiste's campaign team as an advisor to Benoît Hamon in his presidential run. He took in charge of EU matters, and more precisely, the Fiscal Stability Treaty (or TSCG), while Julia Cagé
7735-414: The very top economic elite, who had previously been understudied, and to ascertain their rate of accumulation of wealth and how this compared to the rest of society and economy. His 2013 book Capital in the Twenty-First Century , relies on economic data going back 250 years to show that an ever-rising concentration of wealth is not self-correcting. To address this problem, he proposes redistribution through
7826-477: Was also of devşirme background. It is reported by Madeline Zilfi that European visitors of the time commented "In making appointments, Sultan pays no regard to any pretensions on the score of wealth or rank. It is by merits that man rise.. Among the Turks, honours, high posts and Judgeships are rewards of great ability and good service." Safavid Persian society was also a meritocracy where officials were appointed on
7917-532: Was also used by Hannah Arendt in her essay "Crisis in Education", which was written in 1958 and refers to the use of meritocracy in the English educational system. She too uses the term pejoratively. It was not until 1972 that Daniel Bell used the term positively. M. Young's formula to describe meritocracy is: m = IQ + E. The formula of L. Ieva instead is: m = f (IQ, Cut, ex) + E. That is, for Young, meritocracy
8008-407: Was due to a decrease in estate inequalities, while wage inequalities remained stable. The shrinking inequality during this period, Piketty says, resulted from a highly progressive income tax after the war, which upset the dynamics of estate accumulation by reducing the surplus money available for saving by the wealthiest. The normative conclusion Piketty draws is that a tax cut and thus a decrease in
8099-545: Was responsible for the candidate's economic and fiscal platform. Piketty expressed his view that the TSCG should be renegotiated in order to introduce a eurozone assembly, composed of members of EU's parliaments – a "democratic government", he said, in comparison with the current system which he views as a "huis clos" (a "private, closed-door discussion", an in camera arrangement). Such change would currently require unanimous approval of all EU members, and Piketty has suggested that
8190-625: Was the British Empire , in their administration of India: "company managers hired and promoted employees based on competitive examinations in order to prevent corruption and favoritism". British colonial administrators advocated the spread of the system to the rest of the Commonwealth , the most "persistent" of which was Thomas Taylor Meadows, Britain's consul in Guangzhou , China . Meadows successfully argued in his Desultory Notes on
8281-490: Was well received, but some critics considered Piketty's work too vague. In particular, Nicolas Brisset criticized his definitions and analyses of "ideology" and "capitalism" for being too weak. Cleveland Review of Books praised the book, saying it "utilizes historical, political, and philosophical analysis to provide a sweeping and detailed account of the ideological context behind how what he calls "inequality regimes" sustain themselves." His 2022 A Brief History of Equality
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