List of forms of government
62-445: A unitary state is a state or sovereign state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority. The central government may create or abolish administrative divisions (sub-national or sub state units). Such units exercise only the powers that the central government chooses to delegate. Although political power may be delegated through devolution to regional or local governments by statute ,
124-467: 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
186-468: 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
248-438: A centralised and bureaucratic government with a rigid centralisation of authority. The acts for the implementation are needed after delegation. Therefore, the authority for taking the decisions can be spread with the help of the delegation of the authority. The centralisation of authority can be done immediately, if complete concentration is given at the decision-making stage for any position. The centralisation can be done with
310-441: 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
372-426: 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
434-402: 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
496-434: A particular group within that organisation. This creates a power structure where the said group occupies the highest level of hierarchy and has significantly more authority and influence over the other groups, who are considered its subordinates. An antonym of centralisation is decentralisation , where authority is shared among numerous different groups, allowing varying degree of autonomy for each. The term has
558-616: 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
620-490: A position or at a level in an organisation. Ideally, the decision-making power is held by a few individuals. Centralisation of authority has several advantages and disadvantages. The benefits include: Disadvantages, on the other hand are as follows: As written in V.I. Lenin’s book, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism , "The remarkably rapid concentration of production in ever-larger enterprises are one of
682-536: 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
SECTION 10
#1732765604834744-458: 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
806-408: 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
868-407: 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
930-421: A variety of meanings in several fields. In political science , centralisation refers to the concentration of a government's power—both geographically and politically—into a centralised government , which has sovereignty over all its administrative divisions . Conversely, a decentralised system of government often has significant separation of powers and local self-governance . Centralisation of authority
992-614: Is an example of a unitary state. Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland have a degree of autonomous devolved power, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom , which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution. Similarly in Spain , the devolved powers are delegated through the central government. State (polity) A state is a political entity that regulates society and
1054-402: 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
1116-420: 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
1178-414: 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
1240-811: Is the systematic and consistent concentration of authority at a central point or in a person within the organization. This idea was first introduced in the Qin dynasty of China. The Qin government was highly bureaucratic and was administered by a hierarchy of officials, all serving the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang . The Qin dynasty practised all the things that Han Feizi taught, allowing Qin Shi Huang to own and control all his territories, including those conquered from other countries. Zheng and his advisers ended feudalism in China by setting up new laws and regulations under
1302-469: 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
SECTION 20
#17327656048341364-523: 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
1426-703: 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
1488-512: The Napoleonic Wars , and to the world through the vast French colonial empire . Unitary states stand in contrast to federations , also known as federal states . A large majority of the UN member countries , 166 out of 193, have a unitary system of government, while significant population and land mass is under some kind of federation. A unitary system of government can be considered to be
1550-549: 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
1612-517: 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
1674-422: 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 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
1736-655: 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
1798-472: 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
1860-422: 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
1922-471: 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
Unitary state - Misplaced Pages Continue
1984-480: 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
2046-413: 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
2108-427: 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
2170-520: 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
2232-549: 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
2294-597: The central government may alter the statute, to override the decisions of devolved governments or expand their powers. The modern unitary state concept originated in France ; in the aftermath of the Hundred Years' War , national feelings that emerged from the war unified France. The war accelerated the process of transforming France from a feudal monarchy to a unitary state. The French then later spread unitary states by conquests , throughout Europe during and after
2356-476: 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
2418-455: 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
2480-412: 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
2542-562: 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
Unitary state - Misplaced Pages Continue
2604-619: 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
2666-437: 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
2728-626: 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
2790-411: 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
2852-473: 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
2914-470: The monarch, leading to greater centralization of lawmaking and military power in his hands. Beginning in the 15th century, this centralizing process gives rise to the absolutist state. Centralisation Centralisation or centralization (see English spelling differences ) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning, decision-making, and framing strategies and policies, become concentrated within
2976-552: 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
3038-507: The most characteristic features of capitalism." He researched the development of production and decided to develop the concept of production as a centralised framework, from individual and scattered small workshops into large factories, leading the capitalism to the world. This is guided by the idea that once concentration of production develops into a particular level, it will become a monopoly, like party organisations of Cartel, Syndicate, and Trust. Most businesses deal with issues relating to
3100-692: 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
3162-439: 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
SECTION 50
#17327656048343224-509: The opposite of federalism . In federations, the provincial/regional governments share powers with the central government as equal actors through a written constitution , to which the consent of both is required to make amendments. This means that the sub-national units have a right to existence and powers that cannot be unilaterally changed by the central government. Italics : States with limited recognition from other sovereign states or intergovernmental organizations . The United Kingdom
3286-475: 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
3348-433: 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
3410-404: 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
3472-497: 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
3534-472: 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
3596-532: The specifics of centralisation or decentralisation of decision-making. The key question is either whether the authority should manage all the things at the centre of a business (centralised), or whether it should be delegated far away from the centre (decentralised). The choice between centralised or decentralised varies. Many large businesses necessarily involve some extent of decentralisation and some extent of centralisation when it begins to operate from several places or any new units and markets added. According to
3658-486: 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
3720-461: 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
3782-481: 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
SECTION 60
#17327656048343844-594: 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
#833166