| Census democracy | It is the suffrage in which the right to vote is restricted to only a part of the population, being in many cases wealthy class. This was the case in almost all existing democracies of the 18th and 19th centuries, although in the latter the right to vote was given to the working class and the lower middle class in countries like Great Britain, later in the 20th century the universal suffrage with the advent of voting rights for all people of the age of majority. |  Kingdom of Great BritainOligarchies are societies controlled and organised by a small class of privileged people, with no intervention from 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 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.
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 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.
| Term | Definition | Examples | | Aristocracy | Rule by the nobility; a system of governance where political power is in the hands of a small class of privileged individuals who claim a higher birth than the rest of society. |  Holy Roman Empire
Types of autocracyAutocracies are ruled by a single entity with absolute power, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regular mechanisms of popular control. That entity may be an individual, as in 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.
| Term | Definition | Examples | | Civilian dictatorship | A dictatorship where power resides in the hands of one single person or polity. That person may be, for example, an absolute monarch or a dictator, but can also be an elected president. In modern times, an autocrat's rule is one that is not stopped by any rules of law, constitutions, or other social and political institutions. After World War II, many governments in Latin America, Asia, and Africa were ruled by autocratic governments. Examples of dictators include Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and the Kim dynasty of North Korea founded by Kim Il Sung. |
Pejorative attributesRegardless of the form of government, the actual governance may be influenced by sectors with political power which are not part of 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.
| Term | Definition | | Banana republic | A politically unstable and kleptocratic government that economically depends upon the exports of a limited resource, and usually features a society composed of stratified social classes, such as a great, impoverished ergatocracy and a ruling plutocracy, composed of the aristocracy of business, politics, and the military. In political science, the term banana republic denotes a country dependent upon limited primary-sector productions, which is ruled by a plutocracy who exploit the national economy by means of a politico-economic oligarchy. In American literature, the term banana republic originally denoted the fictional Republic of Anchuria, a servile dictatorship that abetted, or supported for kickbacks, the exploitation of large-scale plantation agriculture, especially banana cultivation. In U.S. politics, the term banana republic is a pejorative political descriptor coined by the American writer O. Henry in Cabbages and Kings, a book of thematically related short stories derived from his 1896–1897 residence in Honduras, where he was hiding from U.S. law for bank embezzlement. | | Bankocracy | Rule by banks; a system of governance with excessive power or influence of banks and other financial authorities on public policy-making. It can also refer to a form of government where financial institutions rule society. | | Corporatocracy | Rule by corporations; a system of governance where an economic and political system is controlled by corporations or corporate interests. Its use is generally pejorative. Examples include company rule in India, and the business voters for the City of London Corporation. | | Kakistocracy | Rule by the worst; a system of government where the least-qualified citizens govern or dictate policies. | | Kleptocracy | Rule by thieves; a system of governance where its officials and the ruling class in general pursue personal wealth and political power at the expense of the wider population. In strict terms kleptocracy is not a form of government but a characteristic of a government engaged in such behavior. | | Nepotocracy | Rule by nephews; favouritism granted to relatives regardless of merit; a system of governance in which importance is given to the relatives of those already in power, like a nephew. In such governments even if the relatives aren't qualified they are given positions of authority just because they know someone who already has authority. Pope Alexander VI was accused of this. | | Ochlocracy | Rule by the crowd; a system of governance where mob rule is government by mob or a mass of people, or the intimidation of legitimate authorities. As a pejorative for majoritarianism, it is akin to the Latin phrase mobile vulgus meaning "the fickle crowd", from which the English term "mob" was originally derived in the 1680s. Ochlocratic governments are often a democracy spoiled by demagoguery, "tyranny of the majority" and the rule of passion over reason; such governments can be as oppressive as autocratic tyrants. Ochlocracy is synonymous in meaning and usage to the modern, informal term "mobocracy". |
Forms of government by power ideologyCountries with monarchy attributes are those where a family or group of families, called the royalty, represents national identity, with power traditionally assigned to one of its individuals, called the monarch, who mostly rule kingdoms. The actual role of the monarch and other members of royalty varies from purely symbolical to partial and restricted to completely despotic. Traditionally and in most cases, the post of the monarch is inherited, but there are also elective monarchies where the monarch is elected.
| Term | Definition | | Absolute monarchy | A traditional and historical system where the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government. Many nations of Europe during the Middle Ages were absolute monarchies. Modern examples include mainly Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Brunei and one African country, Eswatini. | | Constitutional monarchy | Also called parliamentary monarchy, the monarch's powers are limited by law or by a formal constitution, usually giving them the role of head of state. Many modern developed countries, including the United Kingdom, Norway, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Spain and Japan, are constitutional monarchy systems. | | Crowned republic | A form of government where the monarch is an official ceremonial entity with no political power. The royal family and the monarch are intended to represent the country and may perform speeches or attend an important ceremonial events as a symbolical guide to the people, but hold no actual power in decision-making, appointments, et cetera. | | Elective monarchy | A form of government where the monarch is elected, a modern example being the King of Cambodia, who is chosen by the Royal Council of the Throne; Vatican City is also often considered a modern elective monarchy. | | Self-proclaimed monarchy | A form of government where the monarch claims a monarch title without a nexus to the previous monarch dynasty. Modern self-proclaimed monarchies include the micronation Principality of Seborga claiming 14 square kilometres of Italy. |
Types of republicRule by 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 the people rule, as republican forms of government.
These categories are not exclusive.
| Term | Definition | | Classical republic | Classical antiquity civilizations typically followed a republican model with a complex system of assemblies and magistrates, all drawing upon the idea of a "civic" sector—a representative sample of particular populations. In a classical republic, power rests with selected individuals who represent the citizenry and who rule in accordance with mutually agreed-upon law. | | Constitutional republic | Republics where the government's powers are limited by law or a formal constitution, and in which the leaders are chosen by a vote amongst the populace. Typically, laws cannot be passed which violate said constitution, unless the constitution itself is altered by law. This theoretically serves to protect minority groups from being subjected to the tyranny of the majority, or mob rule. Examples include India, South Africa, United States, etc. | | Democratic republic | Republics where the laws are ultimately decided by popular vote, whether by a body of elected representatives or directly by the public, and there is no restriction on which laws are passed so long as they have majority support. Constitutional law is either non-existent or poses little obstacle to legislation. | | Federal republic | Republics that are a federation of states or provinces, where there is a national law encompassing the nation as a whole but where each state or province is free to legislate and enforce its own laws and affairs so long as they do not conflict with federal law. Examples include Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Germany, India, Mexico, Russia, Switzerland, United States and Nigeria. | | Islamic republic | Republics purporting to be governed in accordance with Islamic law. Islamic Republic of Iran, Mauritania, and Islamic Republic of Pakistan are self-described Islamic republics. Afghanistan, Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros and the Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkestan were Islamic republics at one time but are no more. | | Parliamentary republic | Republics, like India or Singapore, with an elected head of state, but where the head of state and head of government are kept separate with the head of government retaining most executive powers, or a head of state akin to a head of government, elected by a parliament. | | Presidential republic | Republics with an elected head of state, where the head of state is also the head of the government. Examples include the United States, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia. | | People's republic | Republics that include countries like China and Vietnam that are de jure governed for and by the people. The term People's Republic is used to differentiate themselves from the earlier republic of their countries before the people's revolution, like the Republic of China. | | Semi-presidential republic |
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, Haiti, Portugal and Egypt. The president, elected by the people, symbolizes national unity and foreign policy while the prime minister 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. | | Directorial republic |
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. | | Merchant republic |
In the early Renaissance, 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. |
Forms of government by socio-economic attributesBy socio-economic attributesMany political systems can be described as socioeconomic 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.
These categories are not exclusive.
| Term | Definition | | Anarchism | A system that advocates self-governed societies based on voluntary institutions. These are often described as stateless societies, although several authors have defined them more specifically as institutions based on non-hierarchical or free associations, while others have advocated for stateless societies with the inclusion of private property, property rights and hierarchical groups, so long as membership and association with those groups are entirely voluntary. Anarchism holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary and/or harmful. | | Capitalism | A system in which the means of production are owned by private individuals, workers then negotiate with those individuals to use those means of production in exchange for a portion of what they produce, usually in the form of capital. The owners of the means of production are entitled to whatever portion of the products of the workers' labor that is agreed upon by the two parties. | | Colonialism | A system in which a native group is subjugated by an external political power for their own economic and/or political benefit. | | Communism | A socialist system in which the means of production are commonly owned, and production is undertaken for use, rather than for profit. Communist society is thus, in theory, stateless, classless, moneyless, — it is usually regarded as the "final form" of a socialist or anarchist society. | | Despotism | A system in which the laws and resources of a nation are controlled by one individual, usually a monarch or dictator, who holds absolute political power. Examples include the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, the Roman emperors and the North Korean supreme leaders. | | Distributism | A variant of capitalism which views widespread property ownership as fundamental right; the means of production are spread as widely as possible rather than being centralized under the control of the state, or a few individuals/corporations Distributism fundamentally opposes socialism and capitalism, which distributists view as equally flawed and exploitative. In contrast, distributism seeks to subordinate economic activity to human life as a whole, to our spiritual life, our intellectual life, our family life". | | Feudalism | A system of land ownership and duties common to Medieval Europe and Feudal Japan. Under feudalism, all the land in a kingdom belonged to the king or emperor. However, the king/emperor would give some of the land to the lords or nobles who fought for him. These presents of land were called manors. Then the nobles gave some of their land to vassals. The vassals then had to do duties for the nobles. The lands of vassals were called fiefs.
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 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. | | Minarchism | A variant of capitalism which advocates for the state to exist solely to provide a very small number of services. A popular model of the State proposed by minarchists is known as the night-watchman state, in which the only governmental functions are to protect citizens from aggression, theft, breach of contract, and fraud as defined by property laws, limiting it to three institutions: the military, the police, and courts. | | Monarchism | A system in which the government is headed by an agreed upon head of the nobility who is known as the monarch, usually in the form of a king or emperor. In most monarchical systems the position of monarch is one inherited from a previous ruler by bloodline or marriage, but in other cases it may be a position elected by the nobility themselves, as was the case in the ancient Roman Kingdom and the medieval Holy Roman Empire. | | Republicanism | A system in which the laws and governmental policies of the state are considered a "public matter" and decided by the citizens of the society, whoever they may be. Most modern nation-states are examples of republics, but other examples include those of ancient Rome and Athens. | | Socialism | A system in which workers, democratically and/or socially own the means of production. The economic framework may be decentralized and self-managed in autonomous economic units, as in libertarian systems, or centrally planned, as in authoritarian systems. Public services such as healthcare and education would be commonly, collectively, and/or state owned. | | Totalitarianism | A system in which opposition is prohibited, civil rights are extremely suppressed and virtually all aspects of social life, including the economy, morals, public and private lives of citizens, are controlled by a centralized authoritarian state that holds absolute political power, usually under a dictatorship or single political party. Five examples are the Soviet Union (1927–53), Nazi Germany (1933–1945), Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Eritrea and North Korea. | | Tribalism | A system based on a small complex society of varying degrees of centralisation that is led by an individual known as a chief. |
Types of government by geo-cultural attributesGovernments can also be categorized based on their size and scope of influence:
| Term | Definition | | National government | The government of a nation-state and is a characteristic of a unitary state. This is the same thing as a federal government which may have distinct powers at various levels authorized or delegated to it by its member states, though the adjective 'central' is sometimes used to describe it. The structure of central governments varies. Many countries have created autonomous regions by delegating powers from the central government to governments at a sub national level, such as a regional, state or local level. Based on a broad definition of a basic political system, there are two or more levels of government that exist within an established territory and govern through common institutions with overlapping or shared powers as prescribed by a constitution or other law. | | City-state | A sovereign state, also described as a type of small independent country, that usually consists of a single city and its dependent territories. Historically, this included cities such as Rome, Athens, Carthage, and the Italian city-states during the Renaissance. Today only a handful of sovereign city-states exist, with some disagreement as to which are city-states. A great deal of consensus exists that the term properly applies currently to Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Monaco, and Vatican City. City states are also sometimes called micro-states which however also includes other configurations of very small countries. | | Commune | From the Medieval Latin communia. An intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, often having common values and beliefs, as well as shared property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work, income or assets. | | Intergovernmental organisations | Also known as international governmental organizations : the type of organization most closely associated with the term 'international organization', these are organizations that are made up primarily of sovereign states. Notable examples include the United Nations, Organisation of Islamic Conference, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Council of Europe, International Labour Organization and International Police Organization. The UN has used the term "intergovernmental organization" instead of "international organization" for clarity. | | World government | The notion of a common political authority for all of humanity, yielding a global government and a single state that exercises authority over the entire Earth. Such a government could come into existence either through violent and compulsory world domination or through peaceful and voluntary supranational union. |
Forms of government by other attributesBy significant constitutional attributesCertain major characteristics are defining of certain types; others are historically associated with certain types of government.
By approach to regional autonomyThis list focuses on differing approaches that political systems take to the distribution of sovereignty, and the autonomy of regions within the state.
Theoretical and speculative attributesThese have no conclusive historical or current examples outside of speculation and scholarly debate.
| Term | Definition | | Corporate republic | Theoretical form of government occasionally hypothesised in works of science fiction, though some historical nations such as medieval Florence might be said to have been governed as corporate republics. The colonial megacorporations such as the Dutch East India Company should possibly be considered corporate states, being semi-sovereign with the power to wage war and establish colonies.
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, 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 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. | | Collective consciousness | Rule by a collective consciousness of all human minds connected via some form of technological telepathy acting as a form of supercomputer to make decisions based on shared patterned experiences to deliver fair and accurate decisions to problems as they arrive. Also known as the hive mind principle, it differs from voting in that each person would make a decision while in the hive—the synapses of all minds work together following a longer path of memories to make one decision. See technological singularity. | | Secret society | A secret society is a club or organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. As a form of government, secret societies are a theoretical government in which real and actual political power resides with private individuals who make decisions behind the scenes, while publicly elected representatives serve as puppets or scapegoats.
Probably 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:
| | Theonomy | A hypothetical Christian form of government in which society is ruled by divine law. Theonomists hold that divine law, particularly the judicial laws of the Old Testament, should be observed by modern societies. The chief architects of the movement are Gary North, Greg Bahnsen, and R.J. Rushdoony. | | Magocracy | Rule by a government with the highest authority composed entirely or primarily of magicians, sages, sorcerers, wizards, witches, or some other magic users. A magocracy consists of a ruling class that uses magic as a centerpiece of their political power. Magocracies can exist as a government of mages ruling over other mages, or as mages ruling over non-magical persons.Magocracies are portrayed primarily in fiction and fantasy settings. Some examples from popular culture include:
| | Synthetic Technocracy | Rule by specialist AI experts in a given domain. AI technocrats are assumed to have two major advantages over human technocrats: fairness and comprehensiveness. All forms of human government are seen as inherently flawed, due to the tribalism, jingoism and irrational emotional nature of humankind. Synthetic technocracy bills itself as dispassionate and rational, free of the strife of political parties and factions as it pursues its optimal ends. Following in the tradition of other meritocracy theories, synthetic technocrats assume full state control over political and economic issues.Synthetic technocracy is portrayed primarily in science fiction settings. Examples from popular culture include Gaia in Appleseed |
|
|
|
Soviet Union