Government

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Basic forms of government

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Power source Democracy

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Representative

Monarchy

Absolute Constitutional

Oligarchy

Aristocracy Military junta

Plutocracy Stratocracy Timocracy

Authoritarian

Autocracy Despotism Dictatorship Totalitarianism

Other

Anarchy Anocracy Kritarchy Republic Theocracy

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A government is the system by which a state or community is governed.[1] In British English (and that of the Commonwealth of Nations), a government more narrowly refers to the particular executive in control of a state at a given time[2]known in American English as an administration. In American English, government refers to the larger system by which any state is organized.[3] Furthermore, government is occasionally used in English as a synonym for governance. In the case of its broad 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, history, philosophy, science, and sociology.

Contents

1 Political science o 1.1 Etymology o 1.2 Classifying government o 1.3 The dialectical forms of government 2 Forms of government by associated attributes o 2.1 By elements of where decision-making power is held 2.1.1 Aristarchic attributes 2.1.2 Autocratic attributes 2.1.3 Monarchic attributes 2.1.4 Pejorative attributes o 2.2 By elements of who elects the empowered 2.2.1 Authoritarian attributes

2.2.2 Democratic attributes 2.2.3 Oligarchic attributes 2.2.4 Libertarian attributes 2.2.5 Other attributes o 2.3 By elements of how power distribution is structured 2.3.1 Republican attributes 2.3.2 Federalism attributes 2.3.3 Other power structure attributes 3 Forms of government by other characteristic attributes o 3.1 By socio-economic system attributes o 3.2 By political system attributes o 3.3 By significant constitutional attributes o 3.4 By approach to regional autonomy o 3.5 Theoretical and speculative attributes 4 Maps 5 References 6 Bibliography 7 Further Reading 8 External links

Political science
Etymology
From Middle English government,[citation needed] from Old French government[citation needed] (French gouvernement), from Latin gubernatio ("management, government"). Government is a compound formed from the Ancient Greek (kuberna, "I steer, drive, guide, pilot") and the Latin -mente, ablative singular of mns (mind).

arch-, prefix derived from the Greek archon, 'rulership', which means "higher in hierarchy".[4] The Greek word krtos, 'power', which means "right to lead" is the suffix root in words like aristocrat and democracy. Its mythological personification was the god Kratos, a son of Styx.