Forms
For a more comprehensive list, see List of forms of government.
One method of classifying governments is through which people have the authority to rule.
This can either be one person (an autocracy, such as monarchy), a select group of people (an
aristocracy), or the people as a whole (a democracy, such as a republic).
Thomas Hobbes stated on their classification:[15]
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 every one, but certain men distinguished from the rest; it is manifest
there can be but three kinds of Commonwealth. For the representative must needs 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 is called an aristocracy. Other kind 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.
Autocracy
Main article: Autocracy
An autocracy is a system of government in which supreme power is concentrated in the hands
of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized
mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for the implicit threat of a coup d'état or mass
insurrection).[16]
Aristocracy
Main article: Aristocracy
Aristocracy (Greek ἀριστοκρατία aristokratía, from ἄριστος aristos "excellent", and κράτος
kratos "power") is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged
ruling class.[17]
Many monarchies were aristocracies, although in modern constitutional monarchies the
monarch himself or herself has little real power. The term aristocracy could also refer to the
non-peasant, non-servant, and non-city classes in the feudal system.
Democracy
Main article: Democracy
Democracy is a system of government where the citizens exercise power by voting. In a
direct democracy, the citizens as a whole form a governing body and vote directly on each
issue. In a representative democracy the citizens elect representatives from among
themselves. These representatives meet to form a governing body, such as a legislature. In a
constitutional democracy the powers of the majority are exercised within the framework of a
representative democracy, but the constitution limits the majority and protects the minority,
usually through the enjoyment by all of certain individual rights, e.g. freedom of speech, or
freedom of association.[18][19]
Republics
Main article: Republic
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 the government and
where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people.[20][21] A common simplified
definition of a republic is a government where the head of state is not a monarch.[22][23]
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.[24]
Other terms used to describe different republics include democratic republic, parliamentary
republic, semi-presidential republic, presidential republic, federal republic, and Islamic
republic.
Federalism
Main article: Federalism
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2013)
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by
covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe
a system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central
governing authority and constituent political units, variously called states, provinces or
otherwise. Federalism is a system based upon democratic principles and institutions in which
the power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments, creating
what is often called a federation. Proponents are often called federalists.
Economic systems
