Terran government type

The government type of the Terran Federal Republic is a subject of debate among political scientists since its inception in the second half of the 21st century. The most widely accepted position is that the Federation is a hybrid regime combining representative democracy and technocracy, whilst retaining elements characteristic of more authoritarian states, such as an extremely extensive intelligence system. Most scholars also agree on the fact that the Federation is more akin to a unitary republic due to the restricted autonomy of individual constituencies and their total submission to the Federal government. 
This debate extends to the predecessor states of the Federation: the First Commonwealth, the Trans-Atlantic Union and the European Federation. The European Federation under the Custodian's rule is generally considered to have been a military dictatorship, with all national and federal elections being suspended indefinitely. 
The subsequent TAU was a confederation, initially constituted of the European Federation and the USA, and later growing to include CANZUK, Japan-Korea, the Second Chinese Republic and India. Whilst initially individual member states retained their democratic elements, over time the overwhelming European hegemony in economic and military affairs forced a rapid centralisation of the country with the disappearance of separation of powers, with all of them eventually ending up within the Custodian's hands.
The First Commonwealth was initially also completely dictatorial, retaining European institutions, which at that point were little more than symbolic, and expanding them to the rest of Earth. In 2088, the Custodian was forced into giving up a lot of his power. However, this merely transformed the First Commonwealth into a directorial system, controlled by the First Central Executive Committee (a successor to the European Comission, renamed so as to distance it from its European and dictatorial roots), itself made up of the Custodian's inner circle.