List of forms of government
This article lists forms of government and political systems, according to a series of different ways of categorizing them. The systems listed are not mutually exclusive, and often have overlapping definitions. Forms of government by power source. Types of oligarchy. Oligarchies 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 are 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. "Note: These categories are not exclusive." Types of autocracy. Autocracies 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 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. Historical examples of autocracy include the Roman Empire and Nazi Germany. 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. 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. Forms of government by power ideology. Types of monarchy. 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. Types of republic. Rule 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. "Note: These categories are not exclusive." Forms of government by socio-political attributes. By socio-economic attributes. Many 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. "Note: These categories are not exclusive." Types of government by geo-cultural attributes. Governments can also be categorized based on their size and scope of influence: Forms of government by other attributes. By significant constitutional attributes. Certain major characteristics are defining of certain types; others are historically associated with certain types of government. 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. Theoretical and  speculative attributes. These currently have no citable real-world examples outside of fiction.