List of forms of government
93-757: A military junta ( / ˈ h ʊ n t ə , ˈ dʒ ʌ n t ə / ) is a system of government led by a committee of military leaders. The term junta means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808. The term is now used to refer to an authoritarian form of government characterized by oligarchic military dictatorship , as distinguished from other categories of authoritarian rule, specifically strongman (autocratic military dictatorships); machine (oligarchic party dictatorships); and bossism (autocratic party dictatorships). A junta often comes to power as
186-467: A directly democratic form of government that was to have a long afterlife in political thought and history. During Medieval times in Europe, the state was organized on the principle of feudalism , and the relationship between lord and vassal became central to social organization. Feudalism led to the development of greater social hierarchies. The formalization of the struggles over taxation between
279-468: A federal union . A federated state is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federation . (Compare confederacies or confederations such as Switzerland.) Such states differ from sovereign states in that they have transferred a portion of their sovereign powers to a federal government . One can commonly and sometimes readily (but not necessarily usefully) classify states according to their apparent make-up or focus. The concept of
372-720: A unitary state or some type of federal union ; in the latter type, the term "state" is sometimes used to refer to the federated polities that make up the federation , and they may have some of the attributes of a sovereign state , except being under their federation and without the same capacity to act internationally. (Other terms that are used in such federal systems may include " province ", " region " or other terms.) For most of prehistory people lived in stateless societies . The earliest forms of states arose about 5,500 years ago. Over time societies became more stratified and developed institutions leading to centralised governments. These gained state capacity in conjunction with
465-441: A certain range of political phenomena . According to Walter Scheidel, mainstream definitions of the state have the following in common: "centralized institutions that impose rules, and back them up by force, over a territorially circumscribed population; a distinction between the rulers and the ruled; and an element of autonomy, stability, and differentiation. These distinguish the state from less stable forms of organization, such as
558-426: A given territory." While defining a state, it is important not to confuse it with a nation; an error that occurs frequently in common discussion. A state refers to a political unit with sovereignty over a given territory. While a state is more of a "political-legal abstraction," the definition of a nation is more concerned with political identity and cultural or historical factors. Importantly, nations do not possess
651-456: A goal to create a typology or taxonomy of polities , as typologies of political systems are not obvious. It is especially important in the political science fields of comparative politics and international relations . Like all categories discerned within forms of government, the boundaries of government classifications are either fluid or ill-defined. Superficially, all governments have an official de jure or ideal form. The United States
744-425: A governing body, such as a legislature or jury . Some governments combine both direct and indirect democratic governance, wherein the citizenry selects representatives to administer day-to-day governance, while also reserving the right to govern directly through popular initiatives , referendums (plebiscites), and the right of recall . In a constitutional democracy the powers of the majority are exercised within
837-402: A government and its state is one of representation and authorized agency. Charles Tilly distinguished between empires, theocracies, city-states and nation-states. According to Michael Mann , the four persistent types of state activities are: Josep Colomer distinguished between empires and states in the following way: According to Michael Hechter and William Brustein , the modern state
930-432: A junta publicly ends its obviously military features but continues its dominance. For example, the junta may terminate the martial law , forgo military uniforms in favor of civilian attire, "colonize" government with former military officers, and make use of political parties or mass organizations. "Indirect rule" involves the junta's exertion of concealed, behind-the-scenes control over a civilian puppet . Indirect rule by
1023-526: A mechanism for determining policy. In many countries, the government has a kind of constitution , a statement of its governing principles and philosophy. While all types of organizations have governance , the term government is often used more specifically to refer to the approximately 200 independent national governments and subsidiary organizations . The main types of modern political systems recognized are democracies , totalitarian regimes , and, sitting between these two, authoritarian regimes with
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#17327797330521116-533: A military strongman is ruled by a single dictator. The study found that (1) "strongmen and military regimes are more likely to commit human rights abuses and become embroiled in civil wars than are civilian dictatorships"; (2) "military strongmen start more international wars than either military regimes or civilian dictators, perhaps because they have more reason to fear postouster exile, prison, or assassination" and (3) military regimes and civilian dictatorships are more likely to end in democratization , in contrast to
1209-463: A narrower scope, such as the government of Portugal , which is actually more similar to the concept of "administration" . The moment and place that the phenomenon of human government developed is lost in time; however, history does record the formations of early governments. About 5,000 years ago, the first small city-states appeared. By the third to second millenniums BC, some of these had developed into larger governed areas: Sumer , ancient Egypt ,
1302-616: A political philosophy of the state, and to have rationally analyzed political institutions. Prior to this, states were described and justified in terms of religious myths. Several important political innovations of classical antiquity came from the Greek city-states and the Roman Republic . The Greek city-states before the 4th century granted citizenship rights to their free population, and in Athens these rights were combined with
1395-536: A privileged and wealthy ruling class that was subordinate to a monarch . The ruling classes began to differentiate themselves through forms of architecture and other cultural practices that were different from those of the subordinate laboring classes. In the past, it was suggested that the centralized state was developed to administer large public works systems (such as irrigation systems) and to regulate complex economies. However, modern archaeological and anthropological evidence does not support this thesis, pointing to
1488-399: A quarter of the world's population under democratically backsliding governments. State (polity) A state is a political entity that regulates society and the population within a territory . Government is considered to form the fundamental apparatus of contemporary states. A country often has a single state, with various administrative divisions . A state may be
1581-433: A result of a coup d'état . The junta may either formally take power as the nation's governing body, with the power to rule by decree , or may wield power by exercising binding (but informal) control over a nominally civilian government. These two forms of junta rule are sometimes called open rule and disguised rule . Disguised rule may take the form of either civilianization or indirect rule . Civilianization occurs when
1674-458: A slightly different definition of the state with respect to the nation: the state is "a primordial, essential, and permanent expression of the genius of a specific [nation]." The definition of a state is also dependent on how and why they form. The contractarian view of the state suggests that states form because people can all benefit from cooperation with others and that without a state there would be chaos. The contractarian view focuses more on
1767-408: A specific state. In the classical thought, the state was identified with both political society and civil society as a form of political community, while the modern thought distinguished the nation state as a political society from civil society as a form of economic society. Thus in the modern thought the state is contrasted with civil society. Antonio Gramsci believed that civil society
1860-407: 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. An autocracy is a system of government in which supreme power is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for
1953-407: A state faces some practical limits via the degree to which other states recognize them as such. Definitions of a state are disputed. According to sociologist Max Weber : a "state" is a polity that maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence , although other definitions are common. Absence of a state does not preclude the existence of a society , such as stateless societies like
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#17327797330522046-477: A striking parallel with star formation, new structures suddenly appeared, together with a new level of complexity. Like stars, cities and states reorganize and energize the smaller objects within their gravitational field. Another explanation includes the need to properly manage infrastructure projects such as water infrastructure. Historically, this required centralized administration and complex social organisation, as seen in regions like Mesopotamia. However, there
2139-428: A variety of hybrid regimes . Modern classification systems also include monarchies as a standalone entity or as a hybrid system of the main three. Historically prevalent forms of government include monarchy, aristocracy , timocracy , oligarchy , democracy , theocracy , and tyranny . These forms are not always mutually exclusive, and mixed governments are common. The main aspect of any philosophy of government
2232-493: Is a federal constitutional republic, while the former Soviet Union was a federal socialist republic . However self-identification is not objective, and as Kopstein and Lichbach argue, defining regimes can be tricky, especially de facto , when both its government and its economy deviate in practice. For example, Voltaire argued that "the Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire". In practice,
2325-429: Is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, elite ruling class , such as a hereditary nobility or privileged caste . This class exercises minority rule , often as a landed timocracy , wealthy plutocracy , or oligarchy . Many monarchies were aristocracies, although in modern constitutional monarchies, the monarch may have little effective power. The term aristocracy could also refer to
2418-448: Is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head . The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units, variously called states, provinces or otherwise. Federalism is a system based upon democratic principles and institutions in which
2511-605: Is archaeological evidence that shows similar successes with more egalitarian and decentralized complex societies. Starting at the end of the 17th century, the prevalence of republican forms of government grew. The English Civil War and Glorious Revolution in England, the American Revolution , and the French Revolution contributed to the growth of representative forms of government. The Soviet Union
2604-471: Is called an aristocracy. In other kinds of Commonwealth there can be none: for either one, or more, or all, must have the sovereign power (which I have shown to be indivisible) entire. According to Yale professor Juan José Linz , there a three main types of political systems today: democracies , totalitarian regimes and, sitting between these two, authoritarian regimes with hybrid regimes . Another modern classification system includes monarchies as
2697-402: Is composed of a specialized and privileged body of individuals, who monopolize political decision-making, and are separated by status and organization from the population as a whole. States can also be distinguished from the concept of a " nation ", where "nation" refers to a cultural-political community of people. A nation-state refers to a situation where a single ethnicity is associated with
2790-420: Is considered by some such as Adam Smith as a central function of the state, since these goods would otherwise be underprovided. Tilly has challenged narratives of the state as being the result of a societal contract or provision of services in a free market – he characterizes the state more akin as a protection racket in the vein of organized crime. While economic and political philosophers have contested
2883-426: Is how political power is obtained, with the two main forms being electoral contest and hereditary succession . A government is the system to govern a state or community. The Columbia Encyclopedia defines government as "a system of social control under which the right to make laws, and the right to enforce them, is vested in a particular group in society". While all types of organizations have governance ,
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2976-414: Is the primary locus of political activity because it is where all forms of "identity formation, ideological struggle, the activities of intellectuals, and the construction of hegemony take place." and that civil society was the nexus connecting the economic and political sphere. Arising out of the collective actions of civil society is what Gramsci calls "political society", which Gramsci differentiates from
3069-581: Is to be reconceptualised where in times of climatic change the needs and desires of the individual are reshaped to generate sufficiency for all. The quality of a government can be measured by Government effectiveness index , which relates to political efficacy and state capacity . List of forms of government Plato in his book The Republic (375 BC) divided governments into five basic types (four being existing forms and one being Plato's ideal form, which exists "only in speech"): These five regimes progressively degenerate starting with aristocracy at
3162-421: Is typically the case with majority governments, but even a minority government may consist of just one party unable to find a willing coalition partner at the moment. A state that continuously maintains a single-party government within a (nominally) multiparty system possesses a dominant-party system . In a (nondemocratic) one-party system a single ruling party has the (more-or-less) exclusive right to form
3255-469: The Amazon rainforest , which are uninhabited or inhabited solely or mostly by indigenous people (and some of them remain uncontacted ). Also, there are so-called " failed states " which do not hold de facto control over all of their claimed territory or where this control is challenged. Currently the international community comprises around 200 sovereign states , the vast majority of which are represented in
3348-523: The Andes . It is only in relatively modern times that states have almost completely displaced alternative " stateless " forms of political organization of societies all over the planet . Roving bands of hunter-gatherers and even fairly sizable and complex tribal societies based on herding or agriculture have existed without any full-time specialized state organization, and these "stateless" forms of political organization have in fact prevailed for all of
3441-648: The Haudenosaunee Confederacy that "do not have either purely or even primarily political institutions or roles". The degree and extent of governance of a state is used to determine whether it has failed . The word state and its cognates in some other European languages ( stato in Italian, estado in Spanish and Portuguese, état in French, Staat in German and Dutch) ultimately derive from
3534-683: The Indus Valley civilization , and the Yellow River civilization . One reason that explains the emergence of governments includes agriculture. Since the Neolithic Revolution , agriculture has been an efficient method to create food surplus. This enabled people to specialize in non-agricultural activities. Some of them included being able to rule over others as an external authority. Others included social experimentation with diverse governance models. Both these activities formed
3627-549: The United Nations . For most of human history, people have lived in stateless societies , characterized by a lack of concentrated authority, and the absence of large inequalities in economic and political power . The anthropologist Tim Ingold writes: It is not enough to observe, in a now rather dated anthropological idiom, that hunter gatherers live in 'stateless societies', as though their social lives were somehow lacking or unfinished, waiting to be completed by
3720-517: The growth of cities , which was often dependent on climate, and economic development , with centralisation often spurred on by insecurity and territorial competition. Over time, a variety of forms of states developed, which used many different justifications for their existence (such as divine right , the theory of the social contract , etc.). Today, the modern nation state is the predominant form of state to which people are subject. Sovereign states have sovereignty ; any ingroup 's claim to have
3813-655: The prehistory and much of human history and civilization . The primary competing organizational forms to the state were religious organizations (such as the Church), and city republics . Since the late 19th century, virtually the entirety of the world's inhabitable land has been parcelled up into areas with more or less definite borders claimed by various states. Earlier, quite large land areas had been either unclaimed or uninhabited, or inhabited by nomadic peoples who were not organised as states . However, even within present-day states there are vast areas of wilderness, like
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3906-472: The " status rei publicae ", the "condition of public matters". In time, the word lost its reference to particular social groups and became associated with the legal order of the entire society and the apparatus of its enforcement. The early 16th-century works of Machiavelli (especially The Prince ) played a central role in popularizing the use of the word "state" in something similar to its modern sense. The contrasting of church and state still dates to
3999-422: The "repressive state apparatus" (such as police and military) in reproducing social relations. Jürgen Habermas spoke of a public sphere that was distinct from both the economic and political sphere. Given the role that many social groups have in the development of public policy and the extensive connections between state bureaucracies and other institutions, it has become increasingly difficult to identify
4092-471: The 16th century. The North American colonies were called "states" as early as the 1630s. The expression "L'État, c'est moi" (" I am the State ") attributed to Louis XIV , although probably apocryphal, is recorded in the late 18th century. There is no academic consensus on the definition of the state. The term "state" refers to a set of different, but interrelated and often overlapping, theories about
4185-480: The Latin word status , meaning "condition, circumstances". Latin status derives from stare , "to stand", or remain or be permanent, thus providing the sacred or magical connotation of the political entity. The English noun state in the generic sense "condition, circumstances" predates the political sense. It was introduced to Middle English c. 1200 both from Old French and directly from Latin. With
4278-772: The Soviet Union was a centralized autocratic one-party state under Joseph Stalin . Identifying a form of government is also difficult because many political systems originate as socio-economic movements and are then carried into governments by parties naming themselves after those movements; all with competing political ideologies. Experience with those movements in power, and the strong ties they may have to particular forms of government, can cause them to be considered as forms of government in themselves. Other complications include general non-consensus or deliberate " distortion or bias " of reasonable technical definitions of political ideologies and associated forms of governing, due to
4371-609: The United States has been chiefly associated with right-wing politics and the Republican Party . However, during the era of segregation many Southern Democrats were conservatives, and they played a key role in the conservative coalition that controlled Congress from 1937 to 1963. Opinions vary by individuals concerning the types and properties of governments that exist. "Shades of gray" are commonplace in any government and its corresponding classification. Even
4464-429: The activities of associated government officials and candidates for office. In a multiparty system of government, multiple political parties have the capacity to gain control of government offices, typically by competing in elections , although the effective number of parties may be limited. A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties together holding an absolute majority of seats in
4557-413: The alignment and conflict of interests between individuals in a state. On the other hand, the predatory view of the state focuses on the potential mismatch between the interests of the people and interests of the state. Charles Tilly goes so far to say that states "resemble a form of organized crime and should be viewed as extortion rackets." He argued that the state sells protection from itself and raises
4650-427: The archaeological record as of 6000 BC; in Europe they appeared around 990, but became particularly prominent after 1490. Tilly defines a state's "essential minimal activities" as: Importantly, Tilly makes the case that war is an essential part of state-making; that wars create states and vice versa. Modern academic definitions of the state frequently include the criterion that a state has to be recognized as such by
4743-402: The basis of governments. These governments gradually became more complex as agriculture supported larger and denser populations, creating new interactions and social pressures that the government needed to control. David Christian explains As farming populations gathered in larger and denser communities, interactions between different groups increased and the social pressure rose until, in
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#17327797330524836-549: The boundaries of the state. Privatization , nationalization , and the creation of new regulatory bodies also change the boundaries of the state in relation to society. Often the nature of quasi-autonomous organizations is unclear, generating debate among political scientists on whether they are part of the state or civil society. Some political scientists thus prefer to speak of policy networks and decentralized governance in modern societies rather than of state bureaucracies and direct state control over policy. The earliest forms of
4929-476: The emergence of a social class of people who did not have to spend most of their time providing for their own subsistence, and writing (or an equivalent of writing, like Inca quipus ) because it made possible the centralization of vital information. Bureaucratization made expansion over large territories possible. The first known states were created in Egypt , Mesopotamia , India , China , Mesoamerica , and
5022-455: The evolutionary development of a state apparatus. Rather, the principal of their socialty, as Pierre Clastres has put it, is fundamentally against the state. During the Neolithic period, human societies underwent major cultural and economic changes, including the development of agriculture , the formation of sedentary societies and fixed settlements, increasing population densities, and
5115-412: The exercise of chiefly power." The most commonly used definition is by Max Weber who describes the state as a compulsory political organization with a centralized government that maintains a monopoly of the legitimate use of force within a certain territory. Weber writes that the state "is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within
5208-562: The existence of several non-stratified and politically decentralized complex societies. Mesopotamia is generally considered to be the location of the earliest civilization or complex society , meaning that it contained cities , full-time division of labor , social concentration of wealth into capital , unequal distribution of wealth , ruling classes, community ties based on residency rather than kinship , long distance trade , monumental architecture , standardized forms of art and culture, writing, and mathematics and science . It
5301-619: The fore: note the res publica of ancient Rome and the Rzeczpospolita of Poland-Lithuania which finds echoes in the modern-day republic . The concept of temple states centred on religious shrines occurs in some discussions of the ancient world. Relatively small city-states , once a relatively common and often successful form of polity, have become rarer and comparatively less prominent in modern times. Modern-day independent city-states include Vatican City , Monaco , and Singapore . Other city-states survive as federated states, like
5394-570: The framework of representative democracy, but the constitution limits majority rule , usually through the provision by all of certain universal rights , such as freedom of speech or freedom of association . A republic is a form of government in which the country is considered a "public matter" ( Latin : res publica ), not the private concern or property of the rulers, and where offices of states are subsequently directly or indirectly elected or appointed rather than inherited. The people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over
5487-811: The functions and number of branches. An independent, parallel distribution of powers between branches of government is the separation of powers . A shared, intersecting, or overlapping distribution of powers is the fusion of powers . Governments are often organised into three branches with separate powers: a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary; this is sometimes called the trias politica model. However, in parliamentary and semi-presidential systems , branches of government often intersect, having shared membership and overlapping functions. Many governments have fewer or additional branches, such as an independent electoral commission or auditory branch. Presently, most governments are administered by members of an explicitly constituted political party which coordinates
5580-628: 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 the people rule, as republican forms of government. Other terms used to describe different republics include democratic republic , parliamentary republic , semi-presidential republic , presidential republic , federal republic , people's republic , and Islamic republic . Federalism
5673-437: The government is the particular group of people, the administrative bureaucracy that controls the state apparatus at a given time. That is, governments are the means through which state power is employed. States are served by a continuous succession of different governments. States are immaterial and nonphysical social objects, whereas governments are groups of people with certain coercive powers. Each successive government
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#17327797330525766-401: The government, and the formation of other parties may be obstructed or illegal. In some cases, a government may have a non-partisan system , as is the case with absolute monarchy or non-partisan democracy . Democracy is the most popular form of government. More than half of the nations in the world are democracies—97 of 167, as of 2021. However, the world is becoming more authoritarian with
5859-574: The head of the national police or other key bodies. Political scientist Samuel Finer , writing in 1988, noted that juntas in Latin America tended to be smaller than juntas elsewhere; the median junta had 11 members, while Latin American juntas typically had three or four. "Corporate" military coups have been distinguished from "factional" military coups. The former are carried out by the armed forces as an institution, led by senior commanders at
5952-555: The implicit threat of a coup d'état or mass insurrection ). Absolute monarchy is a historically prevalent form of autocracy, wherein a monarch governs as a singular sovereign with no limitation on royal prerogative . Most absolute monarchies are hereditary , however some, notably the Holy See , are elected by an electoral college (such as the college of cardinals , or prince-electors ). Other forms of autocracy include tyranny , despotism , and dictatorship . Aristocracy
6045-626: The international community. Liberal thought provides another possible teleology of the state. According to John Locke, the goal of the state or commonwealth is "the preservation of property" (Second Treatise on Government), with 'property' in Locke's work referring not only to personal possessions but also to one's life and liberty. On this account, the state provides the basis for social cohesion and productivity, creating incentives for wealth-creation by providing guarantees of protection for one's life, liberty and personal property. Provision of public goods
6138-411: The lack of war which European states relied on. A state should not be confused with a government; a government is an organization that has been granted the authority to act on the behalf of a state. Nor should a state be confused with a society; a society refers to all organized groups, movements, and individuals who are independent of the state and seek to remain out of its influence. Neuberger offers
6231-484: The literature of classical antiquity , including Plato 's Ship of State . In British English , "government" sometimes refers to what's also known as a " ministry " or an " administration ", i.e., the policies and government officials of a particular executive or governing coalition . Finally, government is also sometimes used in English as a synonym for rule or governance. In other languages, cognates may have
6324-527: The military can include either broad control over the government or control over a narrower set of policy areas, such as military or national security matters. Throughout the 20th century, military juntas were frequently seen in Latin America , typically in the form of an "institutionalized, highly corporate/professional junta" headed by the commanding officers of the different military branches ( army , navy , and air force ), and sometimes joined by
6417-473: The monarch and other elements of society (especially the nobility and the cities) gave rise to what is now called the Standestaat , or the state of Estates, characterized by parliaments in which key social groups negotiated with the king about legal and economic matters. These estates of the realm sometimes evolved in the direction of fully-fledged parliaments, but sometimes lost out in their struggles with
6510-552: The monopolistic tendency of states, Robert Nozick argues that the use of force naturally tends towards monopoly. Another commonly accepted definition of the state is the one given at the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States in 1933. It provides that "[t]he state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with
6603-531: The most liberal democracies limit rival political activity to one extent or another while the most tyrannical dictatorships must organize a broad base of support thereby creating difficulties for " pigeonholing " governments into narrow categories. Examples include the claims of the United States as being a plutocracy rather than a democracy since some American voters believe elections are being manipulated by wealthy Super PACs . Some consider that government
6696-692: The nation-state, theoretically or ideally co-terminous with a "nation", became very popular by the 20th century in Europe, but occurred rarely elsewhere or at other times. In contrast, some states have sought to make a virtue of their multi-ethnic or multinational character ( Habsburg Austria-Hungary , for example, or the Soviet Union ), and have emphasised unifying characteristics such as autocracy , monarchical legitimacy , or ideology . Other states, often fascist or authoritarian ones, promoted state-sanctioned notions of racial superiority . Other states may bring ideas of commonality and inclusiveness to
6789-463: The nature of politics in the modern era. For example: The meaning of "conservatism" in the United States has little in common with the way the word's definition is used elsewhere. As Ribuffo notes, "what Americans now call conservatism much of the world calls liberalism or neoliberalism "; a "conservative" in Finland would be labeled a " socialist " in the United States. Since the 1950s conservatism in
6882-550: The non- peasant , non-servant, and non- city classes in the feudal system . Democracy is a system of government where citizens exercise power by voting and deliberation . In a direct democracy , the citizenry as a whole directly forms a participatory governing body and vote directly on each issue. In indirect democracy , the citizenry governs indirectly through the selection of representatives or delegates from among themselves, typically by election or, less commonly, by sortition . These select citizens then meet to form
6975-439: The notion of the state as a polity. He stated that politics was not a "one-way process of political management" but, rather, that the activities of civil organizations conditioned the activities of political parties and state institutions, and were conditioned by them in turn. Louis Althusser argued that civil organizations such as church , schools , and the family are part of an "ideological state apparatus" which complements
7068-475: The organizational characteristics like geographic boundaries or authority figures and officials that states do. Additionally, a nation does not have a claim to a monopoly on the legitimate use of force over their populace, while a state does, as Weber indicated. An example of the instability that arises when a state does not have a monopoly on the use of force can be seen in African states which remain weak due to
7161-433: The other states." And that "[t]he federal state shall constitute a sole person in the eyes of international law." Confounding the definition problem is that "state" and "government" are often used as synonyms in common conversation and even some academic discourse. According to this definition schema, the states are nonphysical persons of international law , governments are organizations of people. The relationship between
7254-405: The parliament, in contrast to a minority government in which they have only a plurality of seats and often depend on a confidence-and-supply arrangement with other parties. A coalition government is one in which multiple parties cooperate to form a government as part of a coalition agreement . In a single-party government, a single party forms a government without the support of a coalition, as
7347-458: The people as a whole (a democracy, such as a republic). Thomas Hobbes stated on their classification: The difference of Commonwealths consisteth in the difference of the sovereign , or the person representative of all and every one of the multitude. And because the sovereignty is either in one man, or in an assembly of more than one; and into that assembly either every man hath right to enter, or not everyone, but certain men distinguished from
7440-432: The power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments, creating what is often called a federation . Proponents are often called federalists . Governments are typically organised into distinct institutions constituting branches of government each with particular powers , functions, duties, and responsibilities. The distribution of powers between these institutions differs between governments, as do
7533-404: The present day German city-states , or as otherwise autonomous entities with limited sovereignty, like Hong Kong , Gibraltar and Ceuta . To some extent, urban secession , the creation of a new city-state (sovereign or federated), continues to be discussed in the early 21st century in cities such as London . A state can be distinguished from a government . The state is the organization while
7626-497: The question about why people should trust a state when they cannot trust one another. Tilly defines states as "coercion-wielding organisations that are distinct from households and kinship groups and exercise clear priority in some respects over all other organizations within substantial territories." Tilly includes city-states, theocracies and empires in his definition along with nation-states, but excludes tribes, lineages, firms and churches. According to Tilly, states can be seen in
7719-461: The rest; it is manifest there can be but three kinds of Commonwealth. For the representative must need to be one man or more; and if more, then it is the assembly of all, or but of a part. When the representative is one man, then is the Commonwealth a monarchy; when an assembly of all that will come together, then it is a democracy or popular Commonwealth; when an assembly of a part only, then it
7812-472: The revival of the Roman law in 14th-century Europe, the term came to refer to the legal standing of persons (such as the various " estates of the realm " – noble, common, and clerical), and in particular the special status of the king. The highest estates, generally those with the most wealth and social rank, were those that held power. The word also had associations with Roman ideas (dating back to Cicero ) about
7905-452: The rule of military strongmen, which more often ends by insurgency, popular uprising, or invasion. System of government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state . In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature , executive , and judiciary . Government is a means by which organizational policies are enforced, as well as
7998-486: The state emerged whenever it became possible to centralize power in a durable way. Agriculture and a settled population have been attributed as necessary conditions to form states. Certain types of agriculture are more conducive to state formation, such as grain (wheat, barley, millet), because they are suited to concentrated production, taxation, and storage. Agriculture and writing are almost everywhere associated with this process: agriculture because it allowed for
8091-401: The top and tyranny at the bottom. In his Politics , Aristotle elaborates on Plato's five regimes discussing them in relation to the government of one, of the few, and of the many. From this follows the classification of forms of government according to which people have the authority to rule: either one person (an autocracy , such as monarchy), a select group of people (an aristocracy), or
8184-471: The top of the military hierarchy, while the latter are carried out by a segment of the armed forces and are often led by mid-ranking officers. A 2014 study published in the Annual Review of Political Science journal found that military regimes behaved differently from both civilian dictatorships and autocratic military strongmen. A military regime is ruled by a group of high-ranking officers, whereas
8277-461: The use of pottery and more complex tools. Sedentary agriculture led to the development of property rights , domestication of plants and animals, and larger family sizes. It also provided the basis for an external centralized state. By producing a large surplus of food, more division of labor was realized, which enabled people to specialize in tasks other than food production. Early states were characterized by highly stratified societies, with
8370-475: The word government is often used more specifically to refer to the approximately 200 independent national governments on Earth, as well as their subsidiary organizations, such as state and provincial governments as well as local governments . The word government derives from the Greek verb κυβερνάω [ kubernáo ] meaning to steer with a gubernaculum (rudder), the metaphorical sense being attested in
8463-481: Was differentiated from "leagues of independent cities, empires, federations held together by loose central control, and theocratic federations" by four characteristics: States may be classified by political philosophers as sovereign if they are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Other states are subject to external sovereignty or hegemony where ultimate sovereignty lies in another state. Many states are federated states which participate in
8556-502: Was the first large country to have a Communist government. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall , liberal democracy has become an even more prevalent form of government. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there was a significant increase in the size and scale of government at the national level. This included the regulation of corporations and the development of the welfare state . In political science, it has long been
8649-594: Was the world's first literate civilization, and formed the first sets of written laws . Bronze metallurgy spread within Afro-Eurasia from c. 3000 BC , leading to a military revolution in the use of bronze weaponry, which facilitated the rise of states. Although state-forms existed before the rise of the Ancient Greek empire, the Greeks were the first people known to have explicitly formulated
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