European Union Forums

[Andrewz]

Forms of government

A form of government represents the way a state’s government is organized, the system of official bodies, as well as its structure and collaboration with economic units and citizens.

Within different periods of the history, types of government had different conceptions. When the feudalism began to be ruined step by step and people gradually passed to the industrial age, forms of government began to consolidate and advance. People started to pay more attention not to the way the state head is chosen, but, to the relations which are set between the state leader and parliament, government – in one word, to the separation of powers.

Thereby, a form of government shows:
- how authorized bodies are established in a state;
- their structure;
- the principles that background the cooperation between authorized bodies;
- the interrelations between the state leader and common citizens;
- to what extent the authorized bodies are organized in the matter of ensuring the society’s rights and freedom.


There are the following government forms:

- Democracy
- Dictatorship
- Monarchy
- Republic
- Tyranny
- Theocracy
- Oligarchy
- etc.

You are welcome to describe the form of government you know more things about.
This will be a sticky post - a kind of political FAQ.

[Faw_Peter]

Democracy:
A form of government or a political system, in which the state is ruled directly by people or through the representatives who are chosen by them. Democracy’s main duty is to ensure equal reflection of all the people’s interest within the power execution.

Modern conceptions on democracy includes the following:
- freedom of word
- freedom to religion, religious cults and ceremonies
- freedom to choose the language you speak
- mass-media independence
- freedom for meetings, demonstrations etc.
- freedom for political parties
- citizens’ right to create organizations, structures, groups, unions and political parties;
- civil society development
- right on private property
- separation of the legal, executive and judicial authorities
- authorities’ responsibility towards citizens

[Steven]

Republic:

A form of government in which the supreme power is carried out by the official bodies which are elected by the population (and not only) for a certain period of time. At present, more than 140 from 190 world countries are republics.

A republic has the following specific features:
- existence of only one or a collegiate body state leader - president and parliament. Parliament has the legislative power. The president's duty is to manage the executive power, although this is not common for all republics;
- The mentioned state leaders must be elected for a specified period of time (usually 4-5 years);
- State leader's legal liability;
- President has the right to speak on behalf of the state.

[Admin]

I would like to add to AndrewZ post that you can add here your negative thoughts about a political party as well.
For example how and why a form of government isn't the best for specific tasks.
Please write only intelligent and informational posts - nonsense exclamation based on emotions only, will be deleted or separated for new topics, to avoid flame in this specific thread.

Format guidelines:
1. Please edit the subject line of your post to reflect the contents of your message.
Example: instead of re:Forms of government you can write Forms of government: Liberals
for a post describing liberals.

2. Use bbcodes to format your message and make it more readable.

[Faw_Peter]

Many democratic constitutions stipulate clearly that the power belongs to the people. Example (German Constitution) - "The state's power derives from the people". This is a issue. Why? In German as well as in English language the term "people" has two meanings:

1. a group of persons considered together (a ppulation of a certain unit);
2. the persons living in a country and sharing the same nationality (ethnic group) which excludes non-members.

If "the people" means "the German people", are immigrants allowed to vote? This issue firstly concerns immigrants.

The EU's rules allow a resident EU migrant to vote, at least in EU Parliament elections. Neverheless, foreigners are now allowed to vote in national elections by the most of the EU's nationalist parties, so mostly they are excluded from suffrage. Democracy is the only form of government which specifically rule out immigrants from political decision-making process.

[M.Helen]

Oligarchy is a form of government where the power is concentrated in a narrow circle of persons (oligarchs) and correspond to their own interests and not to the whole society's welfare.

The term of oligarchy began to be used in the Ancient Greece by the philosophers Plato and Aristotle; firstly it was used to mean "the power of the rich". Aristotle considered there are three ideal forms of government: monarchy, aristocracy and politeia and considered oligarchy to be a deviation from aristocracy.

Aristotle considered any oligarchy to be imperfect. Thus, describing the government structure of Sparta and its ephor oligarchy, which had been limiting the kings' power, he wrote:

The matter of ephory is not so good. This power leads the main sectors of the state. But, it is filled by all the civil society, that's why many poor people enter the government, in turn they can easily be bribed.

Plutocracy is a special form of oligarchy.

In 1911 Robert Michels the "Iron law of oligarchy", according to which, a big community can't develop democracy (modern democracies should be considered as elected oligarchies) and any regime converts to olygarchy.

At present, the term of oligarchy is mostly used in Russia, after the break-up of the USSR, since it's considered that many businessmen in the beginning of the '90 tried to reach the power.

Some Russian Oligarchs are:
1. Berezovski B.
2. Abramovich R.
3. Chubais A.
4. Gusinskyi V.
5. Hadarkovskyi M.

[Hakan G]

Monarchy is a form of government which supposes that there is only one ruling person of the government which, also is the only one authorized to take decisions regarding the ruling of a certain country. It is quite hard to come up with a definition for monarchy as it has a long history of evolution, and there have been many types and variations of it throughout times.
But the most important examples of a monarchy are:
-When the head of the state is one single person (the monarch), which concentrates all of the power (legal, executive, judiciary) in his hands (autocracy). Usually this model of a monarchy is a hereditary type.
-the second case would be when the monarch obeys to the constitution (constitutional monarchy), and the sovereignty is guaranteed by The Crown.
There are also examples in history when countries had been ruled by two monarchs at a time.

[willyoumind]

Well, my country government is a Federal constitutional elective monarchy and Parliamentary democracy, thus it's rather a mixture of monarchy and democracy...

[Newrussian town]

M Helen. You were right about Russia regime in 90th, but not now. We simply do not have they anymore. Our country is authoritarian now. And I am glad becouse it is realy the way our people needs, not all but majority.

[willyoumind]

M Helen. You were right about Russia regime in 90th, but not now. We simply do not have they anymore. Our country is authoritarian now. And I am glad because it is really the way our people needs, not all but majority.

At least, it's far better than the 90's...

I'm sure that Russian will become better in the near future with its new government!

[Newrussian town]

I hope it will be right willyoumind. We are not bad as majority think, we are ready to share with every one with our resourses and knowleages. Just say, something like, Russia is one of the great powers and we would like to be a friends, close like brothers, and i promise that every russian heart will stay with it's friends. We don't need new lands, we need new world, like an America. But we need brotherhood, not slaveary. And about Poland or Lithuania, they are living in the past, they don't blame Germans for their past, only Russia. I see the new world like this- USA, Old Europe, Russia, China, India, Japan and others will join to this new community very fast. So we all are different, but we all are humans, so let it be somrthing like Earth Confediration with the united goverment which will consist from the world counsil and chamber of the lords. I know it sounds like madness, but why not?

[Hakan G]

M Helen. You were right about Russia regime in 90th, but not now. We simply do not have they anymore. Our country is authoritarian now. And I am glad because it is really the way our people needs, not all but majority.

At least, it's far better than the 90's...

I'm sure that Russian will become better in the near future with its new government!

With the actual strategy, it gained only enemies for the moment, except Venezuela and Congo

[EuroPenguin]

There are no true monarchys anymore, only Constitutional monarchy

[Lorry]

Monarchy
It is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual, who is the head of state, often for life or until abdication. he person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch. It was a common form of government in the world during the ancient and medieval times.
Currently, 44 nations in the world have monarchs as heads of state, 16 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognize Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state.

[r3dharvest]

- Democracy
- Dictatorship
- Monarchy
- Republic
- Tyranny
- Theocracy
- Oligarchy

May i point out that many of these types of government's can be intertwined with eachother

For example a democracy can adopt a very limited role in a republic where it is mostly restrained to voting political candiadtes the sort of system the US currently has while a monarchy can take a limited role in the governing which is reigned by a monarch and the rest of the government is remarkably similar to a republic.

While a theocracy itself is nothing short of a totalitarian system it "Offically" is ruled by a god that does not actually exist it is instead ruled by a temple which apparently follows the "Word of god" Or translated to english in whatever direction the money is flowing.

And i would like to add a new government type to the mix

Corporatocracy

Definition: Corporatocracy or corpocracy is a form of government where corporations, conglomerates or government entities with private components, control the direction and governance of a country.

Countries can adopt minor corporatocracy where corporation's aid in and even run and control certain aspects of a country for example we can look at SERCO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyFkXmx8 ... re=related

Or a government may be completely controlled by the private sector if so it relies upon the principiles of free trade and competition to continue to grow and develop however their is the risk of a corporation controlling so much of the government that it becomes a monopoly and is essentially a government in its own right and would most likely eventually lead to the country recognising the border between the private and the public sector once that corporation evolves into the ruling authority.

[archetype]

Monarchy is only stable form of 'Goverment', other have flaws when entire populus is at stake. Democracy rearly works for the countries that have large social needs, but it is most freedom loving.

Dictatorships, oligarchy, tyranny..most of eastern europeans countries experienced, and some of the western powers are using that to make their own milder replica of mind or body controlled enviroment...or are cooperating with remains of that structures, calling them selves all democrats.

Theocracy for Europe is idiotic, only works in Vatican area, but can be usefull in godless parts of Europe. Republic is another name for the countries that has no empire history.

I would like Goverment that will make best of every individual, and not play the players on a chess board where they think they deserve to be,or hear and say, connections, mafia...malicious trickery, must this, must that...

But where citizens are proven themselves, or want to be, by working hard in that direction...
Noone expects of supreme rullers to put everyone at position of their dreams, but when freedom is used as synonym for country, one must hope to have a life worth while in his beloved country...on a individual and on a social scale, or go into vast strikes...lowering his patriotics.