Federal republic

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A government is the system by which a state or community is controlled. In the Commonwealth of Nations, the word *government* is also used more narrowly to refer to the collective group of people that exercises executive authority in a state. This usage is analogous to what is called an "administration" in American English. Furthermore, especially in American English, the concepts of *the state* and *the government* may be used synonymously to refer to the person or group of people exercising authority over a politically organized territory. Finally, *government* is also sometimes used in English as a synonym for *governance*.

In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislators, administrators, and arbitrators. Government is the means by which state policy is enforced, as well as the mechanism for determining the policy of the state. A form of government, or form of state governance, refers to the set of political systems and institutions that make up the organisation of a specific government.

Government of any kind currently affects every human activity in many important ways. For this reason, political scientists generally argue that government should not be studied by itself; but should be studied along with anthropology, economics, environmentalism, history, philosophy, science, and sociology.

## Political science

### Classifying government

In political science, it has long been a goal to create a typology or taxonomy of polities, as typologies of political systems are not obvious. It is especially important in the political science fields of comparative politics and international relations.

On the surface, identifying a form of government appears to be simple, as all governments have an official form. The United States is a **constitutional republic**, while the former Soviet Union was a socialist republic. However self-identification is not objective, and as Kopstein and Lichbach argue, defining regimes can be tricky. For example, elections are a defining characteristic of an electoral democracy,Template:Citation needed but in practice elections in the former Soviet Union were not "free and fair" and took place in a one-party state. Voltaire argued that "the Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire".Template:Cite quote Many governments that officially call themselves a "democratic republic" are not democratic, nor a republic; they are usually a dictatorship *de facto*. Communist dictatorships have been especially prone to use this term. For example, the official name of North Vietnam was "The Democratic Republic of Vietnam." China uses a variant, "The People's Republic of China." Thus in many practical classifications it would not be considered democratic.

Identifying a form of government is also difficult because a large number of political systems originate as socio-economic movements and are then carried into governments by specific parties naming themselves after those movements; all with competing political-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.

Other complications include general non-consensus or deliberate "distortion or bias" of reasonable technical definitions to political ideologies and associated forms of governing, due to the nature of politics in the modern era. For example: The meaning of "conservatism" in the United States has little in common with the way the word's definition is used elsewhere. As Ribuffo notes, "what Americans now call conservatism much of the world calls liberalism or neoliberalism". Since the 1950s conservatism in the United States has been chiefly associated with the Republican Party. However, during the era of segregation many Southern Democrats were conservatives, and they played a key role in the Conservative Coalition that controlled Congress from 1937 to 1963.

Researchers from Halmstad University developed a dataset called MaxRange designed to define the level of democracy and institutional structure (its regime-type) on a 100-graded scale where every value represents a unique regimetype. Values are sorted from 1–100 based on level of democracy and political accountability. MaxRange defines the value corresponding to all states and every month from 1789 to there present (continually updated).

### Social-Political ambiguity

Every country in the world is ruled by a system of governance that combines at least three (or more) political and/or economic attributes.Template:Citation needed Additionally, opinions vary by individuals concerning the types and properties of governments that exist. "Shades of gray" are commonplace in any government (and its corresponding classification). Even the most liberal democracies limit rival political activity to one extent or another, whilst the most tyrannical dictatorships must organize a broad base of support, thereby creating difficulties for "pigeonholing" governments into narrow categories. Examples include the claims of the United States as being a plutocracy rather than a democracy since some American voters believe elections are being manipulated by wealthy Super PACs.

### The dialectical forms of government

Template:Main article
The Classical Greek philosopher Plato discusses **five types of regimes**. They are aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. Plato also assigns a man to each of these regimes to illustrate what they stand for. The tyrannical man would represent tyranny for example. These five regimes progressively degenerate starting with aristocracy at the top and tyranny at the bottom.

### Etymology

*arch-*, prefix derived from the Greek archon, 'rulership', which means "higher in hierarchy". The Greek word κράτος *krátos*, 'power', which means "right to lead" is the suffix root in words like *aristocrat* and *democracy*.

## Forms of government by associated attributes

Descriptions of governments can be based on the following attributes:

### By elements of where decision-making power is held

#### Aristocratic attributes

Societies with *aristocracy* attributes are traditionally 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.

 Timocracy | Rule by the honourable; a system of governance ruled by honorable citizens and property owners. Socrates defines a timocracy as a government ruled by people who love honour and are selected according to the degree of honour they hold in society. This form of timocracy is very similar to meritocracy, in the sense that individuals of outstanding character or faculty are placed in the seat of power. European feudalism and post-Revolutionary America are historical examples of this type; the city-state of Sparta provided another real-world model for this form of government.

#### Despotic attributes

Societies with *despotism* attributes are ruled by a single entity with absolute power, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regular mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for implicit threat). That entity may be an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group, as in an oligarchy. The word despotism means to "rule in the fashion of despots".

 Oligarchy | Rule by a small number of people. Differently from aristocracy, these people do not rule because they share a common attribute (strength, intelligence, specialization, honour, etc.) for they are *not* a class. It is a specific group that usually *constitute* the top sectors of the government, although they still may be religious, military or noble leaders for example.

#### Monarchic attributes

Countries with *monarchy* attributes are those where a family or group of families (rarely another type of group), 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 (crowned republic) to partial and restricted (constitutional monarchy) to completely despotic (absolute monarchy). Traditionally and in most cases, the post of the monarch is *inherited*, but there are also elective monarchies where the monarch is elected.

 Crowned republic | A form of government where the monarch (and family) 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 in important ceremonial events as a symbolical guide to the people, but hold no actual power in decision-making, appointments, etc.

#### Pejorative attributes

Regardless of the form of government, the actual governance may be influenced by sectors with political power which are not part of the formal government. Certain actions of the governors, such as corruption, demagoguery, or fear mongering, may disrupt the intended way of working of the government if they are widespread enough.

 Ochlocracy | Rule by the general populace; 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."

### By elements of who elects the empowered

#### Authoritarian attributes

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 Totalitarian | Rule by a totalitarian government is characterised by a highly centralised and coercive authority that regulates nearly every aspect of public and private life.

#### Democratic attributes

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Governments with *democracy* attributes are most common in the Western world and in some countries of the east. In democracies, large proportions of the population may vote, either to make decisions or to choose representatives to make decisions. Commonly significant in democracies are political parties, which are groups of people with similar ideas about how a country or region should be governed. Different political parties have different ideas about how the government should handle different problems.

 Demarchy | Variant of democracy; government in which the state is governed by randomly selected decision makers who have been selected by sortition (lot) from a broadly inclusive pool of eligible citizens. These groups, sometimes termed "policy juries", "citizens' juries", or "consensus conferences", deliberately make decisions about public policies in much the same way that juries decide criminal cases. Demarchy, in theory, could overcome some of the functional problems of conventional representative democracy, which is widely subject to manipulation by special interests and a division between professional policymakers (politicians and lobbyists) vs. a largely passive, uninvolved and often uninformed electorate. According to Australian philosopher John Burnheim, random selection of policymakers would make it easier for everyday citizens to meaningfully participate, and harder for special interests to corrupt the process.
 Totalitarian democracy | Variant of democracy; refers to a system of government in which lawfully elected representatives maintain the integrity of a nation state whose citizens, while granted the right to vote, have little or no participation in the decision-making process of the government.

#### Oligarchic attributes

Governments with *oligarchic* attributes are ruled by a small group of segregated, powerful and/or influential people, who usually share similar interests and/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 are the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Some critics of representative democracy think of the United States as an oligarchy. The Athenian democracy used sortition to elect candidates, almost always male, Greek, educated citizens holding a minimum of land, wealth and status.

 Theocracy | Rule by a religious elite; a system of governance composed of religious institutions in which the state and the church are traditionally and/or constitutionally the same entity. Citizens who are clergy have the right to govern. The Vatican's (see Pope), the Tibetan government's (see Dalai Lama) and Islamic states are historically considered *theocracies*.

#### Other attributes

A modern example could be that of hidden web.Template:Citation needed
 Anocracy | An regime type where power is not vested in public institutions (as in a normal democracy) but spread amongst elite groups who are constantly competing with each other for power. Examples of anocracies in Africa include the warlords of Somalia and the shared governments in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Anocracies are situated midway between an autocracy and a democracy.
The Polity IV datasetTemplate:Clarify recognised anocracy as a category. In that dataset, anocracies are exactly in the middle between autocracies and democracies.

### By elements of how power distribution is structured

#### Republican attributes

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.

 Socialist republic | Countries like China and Vietnam are meant to be governed for and by the people, but with no direct elections. 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.

#### Federalism attributes

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**Federalism** is a political concept in which a *group* of members are bound together by covenant (Latin: *foedus*, 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 (such as states or provinces). Federalism is a system based upon democratic rules 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.

 **Federal republic** | A federal union of states or provinces with a republican form of government. Examples include Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Germany, India, Russia, and Switzerland.

#### Other power structure attributes

 Nomocracy | Rule by a government under the sovereignty of rational laws and civic right as opposed to one under theocratic systems of government. In a nomocracy, ultimate and final authority (sovereignty) exists in the law.

## Forms of government by other characteristic attributes

### By socio-economic system attributes

Template:Further
Historically, most political systems originated 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.

 Welfare state | An social-economic system in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those unable to avail themselves of the minimal provisions for a good life.

### By significant constitutional attributes

Certain major characteristics are defining of certain types; others are historically associated with certain types of government.

* Rule according to higher law (unwritten ethical principles) vs. written constitutionalism
* Separation of church and state or free church vs. state religion
* Civilian control of the military vs. stratocracy
* Totalitarianism or authoritarianism vs. libertarianism
	+ Police state
* Majority rule or parliamentary sovereignty vs. constitution or bill of rights with separation of powers and supermajority rules to prevent tyranny of the majority and protect minority rights
* Androcracy (patriarchy) or gynarchy (matriarchy) vs. gender quotas, gender equality provision, or silence on the matter

### By approach to regional autonomy

This list focuses on differing approaches that political systems take to the distribution of sovereignty, and the autonomy of regions within the state.

* Sovereignty located exclusively at the centre of political jurisdiction.

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* + Empire
	+ Unitary state

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* Sovereignty located at the centre and in peripheral areas.

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* + Hegemony
	+ Federation and **federal republic**
	+ Confederation
	+ Federal monarchy

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* Diverging degrees of sovereignty.

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* + Alliance
	+ Asymmetrical federalism
	+ Federacy
	+ Associated state
	+ Corpus separatum
	+ Colony
	+ Crown colony
	+ Chartered company
	+ Dependent territory
	+ Occupied territory
	+ Occupied zone
	+ Mandate
	+ Exclusive Mandate
	+ Protectorate
	+ Military Frontier
	+ Neutral Zone
	+ Colonial dependency
	+ Thalassocracy
	+ Unrecognized state
	+ Government in exile
	+ Provisional government
	+ States with limited recognition
	+ Territoral disputes
	+ Non-Self-Governing Territories
	+ League of Nations
	+ League
	+ Commonwealth
	+ Decentralisation and devolution (powers redistributed from central to regional or local governments)

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### Theoretical and speculative attributes

These currently have no citable real-world examples outside of fiction.

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.
 Uniocracy | Ruled by a singularity of all human minds connected via some form of technical or non-technical telepathy acting as a form of super computer 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.

## Maps

 File:Forms of government.svg
 File:2015 Democracy Index.svg
 File:Electoral democracies.png
 File:Map of unitary and federal states.svg
 File:Major-Cultural-spheres.svg

## See also

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* Central government
* Civics
* Comparative government
* Constitutional economics
* Digital democracy
* E-Government
* History of politics
* Legal rights
* List of countries by system of government
* List of European Union member states by political system
* Ministry
* Political economy
* Political history
* Politics
* Prime ministerial government
* State (polity)
* Voting system
* World government

## References

1. ↑ **Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".**
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5. ↑ See "government" under List of words having different meanings in American and British English: A–L
6. ↑ Template:Citation
7. ↑ Lewellen, Ted C. *Political Anthropology: An Introduction Third Edition*. Praeger Publishers; 3rd edition (30 November 2003)
8. ↑ *Comparative politics : interests, identities, and institutions in a changing global order*, Jeffrey Kopstein, Mark Lichbach (eds.), 2nd ed, Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0521708400, p. 4.
9. ↑ Leo P. Ribuffo, "20 Suggestions for Studying the Right now that Studying the Right is Trendy," *Historically Speaking* Jan 2011 v.12#1 pp 2–6, quote on p. 6
10. ↑ Kari Frederickson, *The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932–1968*, p. 12, "...conservative southern Democrats viewed warily the potential of New Deal programs to threaten the region's economic dependence on cheap labor while stirring the democratic ambitions of the disfranchised and undermining white supremacy.", The University of North Carolina Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-8078-4910-1
11. ↑ **Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".**
12. ↑ "Plutocrats – The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else" Chrystia Freeland is Global Editor-at-Large at Reuters news agency, following years of service at the *Financial Times* both in New York and London. She was the deputy editor of Canada's *Globe and Mail* and has reported for the *Financial Times*, *Economist*, and *Washington Post*. She lives in New York City.
13. ↑ archon. Online Etymology Dictionary. Etymonline.com. Retrieved on 2013-03-15.
14. ↑ Ernst R. Berndt, (1982)."From Technocracy To Net Energy Analysis: Engineers, Economists And Recurring Energy Theories Of Value", Studies in Energy and the American Economy, Discussion Paper No. 11, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Revised September 1982
15. ↑ Fotopoulos, Takis, *The Multidimensional Crisis and Inclusive Democracy*. (Athens: Gordios, 2005). (English translation of the book with the same title published in Greek).
16. ↑ **Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".**
17. ↑ Template:Cite book
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19. ↑ Spencer Heath MacCallum (1 June 1998) A Peaceful Ferment in Somalia. The Independent Institute. Independent.org. Retrieved on 2013-03-15.
20. ↑ American 1793
21. ↑ Template:Cite book
22. ↑ "Anarchy." *Oxford English Dictionary*. Oxford University Press. 2004. The first quoted usage is 1667
23. ↑ "Anarchy." *Oxford English Dictionary*. Oxford University Press. 2004. The first quoted usage is 1552
24. ↑ "Anarchy." *Oxford English Dictionary*. Oxford University Press. 2004. The first quoted usage is 1850.
25. ↑ **Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".**
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34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Montesquieu, *The Spirit of the Laws* (1748), Bk. II, ch. 1.
35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Template:Cite encyclopedia
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37. ↑ Template:Cite encyclopedia
38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Montesquieu, *Spirit of the Laws*, Bk. II, ch. 2–3.
39. ↑ Shiach, Morag (2004). *Modernism, Labour and Selfhood in British Literature and Culture, 1890–1930*. Cambridge University Press. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-521-83459-9
40. ↑ Zwick, Mark and Louise (2004). *The Catholic Worker Movement: Intellectual and Spiritual Origins* . Paulist Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-8091-4315-3
41. ↑ Boyle, David; Simms, Andrew (2009). *The New Economics*. Routledge. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-84407-675-8
42. ↑ Novak, Michael; Younkins, Edward W. (2001). *Three in One: Essays on Democratic Capitalism, 1976–2000*. Rowman and Littlefield. p. 152. ISBN 978-0-7425-1171-2
43. ↑ Storck, Thomas. "Capitalism and Distributism: two systems at war," in *Beyond Capitalism & Socialism*. Tobias J. Lanz, ed. IHS Press, 2008. p. 75
44. ↑ **Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".**
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## Bibliography

* *American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language* (4th ed.). 222 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-82517-2

## Further reading

* Krader, Lawrence (1968). *Formation of the State*, in *Foundations of Modern Anthropology Series*. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. x, 118 p.
* Template:Cite book
* Template:Cite book
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## External links

Template:Wiktionary
Template:Wiktionary
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* The Phrontistery Word List: Types of Government and Leadership
* What Are the Different Types of Governments?
* Types of Governments from Historical Atlas of the 20th Century
* Other classifications examples from Historical Atlas of the 20th Century
* World Affairs: Types of Government
* Regime Types
* CBBC Newsround: types of government
* Bill Moyers: Plutocracy Rising
* Phobiocracy by Chris Claypoole

Template:Navboxes
Template:Authority controlA **federal republic** is a federation of states with a republican form of government. At its core, the literal meaning of the word republic when used to reference a form of government means: "a country that is governed by elected representatives and by an elected leader (such as a president) rather than by a king or queen".

In a federal republic, there is a division of powers between the federal government, and the government of the individual subdivisions. While each federal republic manages this division of powers differently, common matters relating to security and defense, and monetary policy are usually handled at the federal level, while matters such as infrastructure maintenance and education policy are usually handled at the regional or local level. However, views differ on what issues should be a federal competence, and subdivisions usually have sovereignty in some matters where the federal government does not have jurisdiction. A federal republic is thus best defined in contrast to a unitary republic, whereby the central government has complete sovereignty over all aspects of political life. As in the United States, most federal republics codify the division of powers between orders of government in a written  constitutional document.

The political differences between a federal republic and other federal states, especially federal monarchies under a parliamentary system of government, are largely a matter of legal form rather than political substance, as most federal states are democratic in structure if not practice. However, some federal monarchies, such as the United Arab Emirates are based upon principles other than democracy.

## See also

* Form of government
* List of republics
* Federal monarchy

## Notes and references

1. ↑ **Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".**
2. ↑ Forum of Federations: [1], Schram, Sanford. Handbook of Federal Countries: United States, pg 373-391, 2005.
3. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Austria, 14 May 2009
4. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Bosnia and Herzegovina, 14 May 2009
5. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Brazil, 14 May 2009
6. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Ethiopia, 14 May 2009
7. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Germany, 14 May 2009
8. ↑ CIA World Factbook: India, 14 May 2009
9. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Mexico, 14 May 2009
10. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Nepal, 14 May 2009
11. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Nigeria, 14 May 2009
12. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Pakistan, 14 May 2009
13. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Russia, 14 May 2009
14. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Switzerland, 14 May 2009
15. ↑ CIA World Factbook: United States, 14 May 2009
16. ↑ CIA World Factbook: Venezuela, 14 May 2009
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 The CIA World Factbook officially dated October 15, 1991
18. ↑ The states lived on until a final treaty in 1956 in which Republic of South Maluku and the State of Eastern Sumatra agreed to devolve into the Republic of Indonesia.Template:Citation needed

## External links

Template:Autonomous types of first-tier administration

**Warning:** Default sort key "Federal republic" overrides earlier default sort key "Government, Forms of".