Government

==Forms==
{{Main|List of forms of government}}
{{See|Mixed government}}

{{Basic forms of government}}

[[Plato]] in his book ''[[Republic (Plato)|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"):<ref name="Abjorensen2019">{{Cite book |last=Abjorensen |first=Norman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cNSSDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA288 |title=Historical Dictionary of Democracy |date=2019 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-1-5381-2074-3 |pages=288– |oclc=1081354236}}</ref>

* [[Aristocracy]] (rule by law and order, like ideal traditional "benevolent" kingdoms that are not tyrannical)
* [[Democracy]] (rule by pure liberty and equality, like a free citizen)
* [[Oligarchy]] (rule by wealth and market-based-ethics, like a laissez-faire capitalist state)
* [[Timocracy]] (rule by honor and duty, like a "benevolent" military; Sparta as an example)
* [[Tyrant|Tyranny]] (rule by fear, like a despot)

These five regimes progressively degenerate starting with aristocracy at the top and tyranny at the bottom.{{sfn|Brill|2016}}

In his ''[[Politics (Aristotle)|Politics]]'', Aristotle elaborates on Plato's five regimes discussing them in relation to the government of one, of the few, and of the many.<ref name="Jordović2019">{{Cite book |last=Jordović |first=Ivan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=if7vxwEACAAJ |title=Taming Politics: Plato and the Democratic Roots of Tyrannical Man |date=2019 |publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag |isbn=978-3-515-12457-7 |page=intro |oclc=1107421360}}</ref> 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 the people as a whole (a democracy, such as a republic).

[[Thomas Hobbes]] stated on their classification:

{{blockquote|The difference of [[Commonwealth]]s 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.<ref name="Leviathan">{{Cite wikisource |last1=Hobbes |first1=Thomas |title=Leviathan |wslink=Leviathan/The Second Part}}</ref>}}

===Modern basic political systems===
According to [[Yale]] professor [[Juan José Linz]], there a three main types of [[political system]]s today: [[democracy|democracies]],
[[totalitarian regime]]s and, sitting between these two, [[authoritarianism|authoritarian regimes]] with [[hybrid regime]]s.<ref name="LinzLinz2000" /><ref name="Michie2014">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ip_IAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA95 |title=Reader's Guide to the Social Sciences |date=3 February 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-93226-8 |editor-last=Jonathan Michie |page=95 |access-date=20 October 2022 |archive-date=22 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422130238/https://books.google.com/books?id=ip_IAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA95 |url-status=live }}</ref> Another modern classification system includes [[monarchies]] as a standalone entity or as a hybrid system of the main three.<ref name="Garcia-AlexanderWooCarlson2017" /> Scholars generally refer to a [[dictatorship]] as either a form of authoritarianism or  totalitarianism.<ref name="ToddWaller2015">{{Cite book |last1=Todd |first1=Allan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y_pfCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 |title=History for the IB Diploma Paper 2 AuthoritariaAuthoritarian States (20th Century) |last2=Waller |first2=Sally |date=10 September 2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-55889-2 |editor-last=Todd |editor-first=Allan |pages=10– |editor-last2=Waller |editor-first2=Sally |access-date=20 October 2022 |archive-date=22 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422130238/https://books.google.com/books?id=y_pfCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="LinzLinz2000" /><ref name="Sondrol">{{Cite journal |last=Sondrol |first=P. C. |date=2009 |title=Totalitarian and Authoritarian Dictators: A Comparison of Fidel Castro and Alfredo Stroessner |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/157386 |journal=Journal of Latin American Studies |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=599–620 |doi=10.1017/S0022216X00015868 |jstor=157386 |s2cid=144333167 |access-date=20 October 2022 |archive-date=8 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308100323/https://www.jstor.org/stable/157386 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Autocracy===
{{Main|Autocracy}}

An autocracy is a system of government in which supreme [[Power (social and political)|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]]).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Paul M. |title=Autocracy: A Glossary of Political Economy Terms |url=http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/autocracy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226063927/http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/autocracy%20 |archive-date=26 December 2018 |access-date=14 September 2012 |publisher=Auburn.edu}}</ref> [[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 monarchy|hereditary]], however some, notably the [[Holy See]], are [[Elective monarchy|elected]] by an [[electoral college]] (such as the [[college of cardinals]], or [[prince-elector]]s). Other forms of autocracy include [[tyranny]], [[despotism]], and [[dictatorship]].

===Aristocracy===
{{Main|Aristocracy}}

Aristocracy{{efn|{{lang-grc|ἀριστοκρατία}} {{transliteration|grc|aristokratía}}, from {{lang|grc|ἄριστος}} {{transliteration|grc|[[Wikt:aristocrat#English|aristos]]}} "excellent", and {{lang|grc|κράτος}} {{transliteration|grc|[[Wikt:kratos|kratos]]}} "[[Power (social and political)|power]]".}} is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, [[elite]] [[ruling class]],<ref name="OED">{{Cite OED|aristocracy}}</ref> such as a hereditary [[nobility]] or [[Social privilege|privilege]]d [[caste]]. This class exercises [[minority rule]], often as a [[Land tenure|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 the non-[[peasant]], non-servant, and non-[[Burgher (social class)|city]] classes in the [[feudal system]].{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

===Democracy===
{{Main|Democracy|Types of democracy}}
[[File:Democracy claims.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|{{ubl|{{legend|green|National governments which self-identify as democracies}}|{{legend|red|National governments which do not self-identify as democracies}}}}]]
[[File:Electoral democracies.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Governments recognised as "electoral democracies" {{as of|2022|lc=yes}} by the ''[[Freedom in the World]]'' survey{{efn|Conducted by American [[think tank]] [[Freedom House]], which is largely funded by the [[US government]].}}]]

Democracy is a system of government where [[citizen]]s exercise power by [[Vote|voting]] and [[Deliberative democracy|deliberation]]. In a [[direct democracy]], the citizenry as a whole directly forms a [[Participatory democracy|participatory]] governing body and vote directly on each issue. In [[indirect democracy]], the citizenry governs indirectly through the selection of [[Representative democracy|representatives]] or [[Delegated voting|delegates]] from among themselves, typically by [[election]] or, less commonly, by [[sortition]]. These select citizens then meet to form 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 govern directly through [[popular initiative]]s, [[referendum]]s (plebiscites), and the [[Recall election|right of recall]]. In a [[constitutional democracy]] the powers of the majority are exercised within the framework of a representative democracy, but the constitution limits [[majority rule]], usually through the provision by all of certain [[universal right]]s, such as [[freedom of speech]] or [[freedom of association]].<ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'': "democracy".</ref><ref name="britannica">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Democracy |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |publisher=William Benton |date=1970 |edition=Expo '70 hardcover |volume=7 |pages=215–223 |language=en |isbn=978-0-85229-135-1 |last1=Watkins |first1=Frederick}}</ref>

==== Republics ====
{{Main|Republic}}

A republic is a form of government in which the country is considered a "public matter" ({{lang-la|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.{{sfn|Montesquieu|1748|loc=book 2, chapters 1}}<ref name="Britannica">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Republic |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica}}{{full citation needed|date=July 2022}}<!--Author? Edition?--></ref>

A common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of state is not a monarch.<ref name="WordNet">{{Cite journal |title=republic |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/republic |url-status=live |journal=WordNet 3.0 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090312065659/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/republic |archive-date=12 March 2009 |access-date=20 March 2009}}</ref><ref name="M-W">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Republic |encyclopedia=Merriam-Webster |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/republic |access-date=14 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612162708/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/republic |archive-date=12 June 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Montesquieu]] included both [[democracy|democracies]], where all the people have a share in rule, and [[aristocracy|aristocracies]] or [[oligarchy|oligarchies]], where only some of the people rule, as republican forms of government.{{sfn|Montesquieu|1748|loc=book 2, chapters 2–3}}

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 ====
{{Main|Federalism}}

Federalism is a political concept in which a ''group'' of members are bound together by [[Covenant (law)|covenant]] with a governing [[Federal headship|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]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cane |first1=Peter |title=The new Oxford companion to law |last2=Conaghan |first2=Joanne |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford university press |isbn=978-0-19-929054-3 |location=Oxford |chapter=Federalism}}</ref> Proponents are often called [[federalist]]s.