Various states and governments obviously exist around the world. In this context, means the political unit within which power and authority reside. This unit can be a whole nation or a subdivision within a nation. Thus, the nations of the world are sometimes referred to as states (or nation-states), as are subdivisions within a nation, such as California, New York and Michigan in the United States. means the group of persons who direct the political affairs of kamalinews.id a state, developing and enforcing state policy, but it can also mean the type of rule by which a state is run. Another term for this second meaning of government is , which we will use here along with government. The type of government under which people live has fundamental implications for their freedom, their welfare and even their lives. There are different ways to categorize the forms of government. In sociology, governments are typically categorized based upon the source of power. As such, there are three broad types of political systems, including democracies, oligarchies and autocracies. , as discussed below, means “rule by the people,” means “rule of the few,” while are systems of government in which power is held by one person, whose decisions are not subject to oversight. Below, we briefly review the major political systems in the world today.
Monarchy
A is a political system in which power resides in a single family that rules from one generation to the next generation. Monarchies rose in prominence once societies shifted from pastoral to agricultural societies, since this form of society allowed both the size of the population to increase and the concentration of power and resources in the hands of wealthy landowners. The landowners would become lords, and eventually one would be crowned king or queen. The power the family enjoys is traditional authority, and many monarchs command respect because their subjects bestow this type of authority on them. Other monarchs, however, have ensured respect through arbitrary power and even terror.
Democracy
The type of government with which we are most familiar is , or a political system in which citizens govern themselves either directly or indirectly. Democracies have existed since the earliest societies, but came into prominence after the decline of monarchies, particularly for countries which had industrialized. However, as Figure 11.4 “Number of Democratic and Autocratic Nation-States Worldwide,” the explosive growth of democratic countries did not occur until the 20th century. Surges in democratization were prompted by the ending of WWI, the decolonization process following WWII, and the fall of communism after 1989.
Figure 11.4 Number of Democratic and Autocratic Nation-States Worldwide
Sources: Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jan Teorell, Nazifa Alizada, David Altman, Michael Bernhard, Agnes Cornell, M. Steven Fish, Lisa Gastaldi, Haaon, Gjerlow, Adam Glynn, Allen Hicken, Gary Hindle, Nina Ilchenko, Joshua Krusell, Anna Luhrmann, Seraphine F. Maercz, Kyle L. Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Valeriya Mechkova, Juraj Medzihorsky, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Josefine Pernes, Johannes von Romer,Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jeffrey Staton, Aksel Sundstrom, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-Ting Wang, Tore Wig, Steven Wilson and Daniel Ziblatt. 2021. ”V-Dem [Country-Year/Country-Date] Dataset v 11” Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. https://doi.org/10.23696/vdemds21. Pemstein, Daniel, Kyle L. Marquardt, Eiten Tzelgov, Yi-Ting Wang, Juraj Medzihorsky, Joshua Krusell, Harhad Miri, and Johannes von Romer. 2021.
11.5 Freedom Around the World (Based on Extent of Political Rights and Civil Liberties)
In addition to generally enjoying the right to vote, people in democracies also have more freedom than those in other types of governments. Figure 11.5 “Freedom Around the World (Based on Extent of Political Rights and Civil Liberties)” depicts the nations of the world according to the extent of their political rights and civil liberties. The freest nations are found in North and South America, Western Europe, and certain other parts of the world, while the least free lie in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism
Authoritarianism and totalitarianism are general terms for non-democratic political systems ruled by an individual or a group of individuals who are not freely elected by their populations and who often exercise arbitrary power. To be more specific, refers to political systems in which an individual or a group of individuals holds power, restricts or prohibits popular participation in governance, and represses dissent. refers to political systems that include all the features of authoritarianism but are even more repressive as they try to regulate and control all aspects of citizens’ lives and fortunes.