A form of government (also referred to as a system of government or a political system) is a system composed of various people, institutions and their relations in regard to the governance of a state.

Definition

There are several definitions of the political system, some of them similar to those of state or government.

• A political system is a complete set of institutions (ex. parliament, courts), political organisations, interest groups (such as political parties, trade unions, lobby groups), the relationships between those institutions and the political norms and rules that govern their functions (constitution, election law).

• A political system is composed of the members of a social organization (group) who are in power.

• A political system is the system that has the monopoly on the legitimate use of force and legislation.

A political system can be considered a part of the social system and hierarchically equal to law system, economic system, cultural system, etc.

Forms of government

A wide range of different forms of government have been suggested and/or used in practice. The following is a list of common forms of government. Note that in practice, it is possible to combine multiple simple forms in a government. The theory and study of comparison and combination of such forms is called civics.

These forms of government give a general schematic of the power structure contained within the government of a country. However, every government is unique and so is every country and its constitution - the basic law which describes the form of government for the state in detail.

Such basic outlines are insufficient descriptions for the continued function of any government. As such, political authorities often distribute and structure power and responsibility to a greater extent than the form of government dictates. A representative democracy for instance such as those of Canada and the United States includes measures for a degree of direct democracy in the form of a referendum, for deliberative democracy in the form of the elaborate process they undergo for constitutional change, and investigating committees and commissions (not always led by representatives), and bioregional democracy in the form of co-ordinating bodies governing ecoregions and watersheds they share, e.g. the Great Lakes.

A number of political systems originated as socio-economic movements and were carried into governments by specific parties naming themselves after those movements. Long experience with those movements in power, and the strong ties of each ideology to governmental control and policy have won them some recognition as forms of government in themselves. Perhaps the most widely known example of such a phenomenon is the history of the communist movement.

Perhaps as a result of the fact that the aforementioned political systems have very little in common with the original socio-economic ideologies from which they developed, many adherents of those ideologies are actually opposed to the political systems commonly associated with them (see, for example, how Trotskyists and other communists have opposed the historical "communist states").

The basic principles of many popular movements have deep implications for the form of government those movements support. For example, bioregional democracy is a pillar of green politics.

Islam as a political movement is also often included on a list of movements that have deep implications for the form of government, but it is more similar to a loose group of related practices than to a single, coherent political movement. Many nations in the Islamic World call themselves Islamic, and often that term is in the name of the state, but in practice, these governments just as often exploit mechanisms of power (such as debt and appeals to nationalism) that have no roots, and sometimes much opposition, in Islam as a religion and as a political practice.

Lists of the forms of government

The lists can be found at list of forms of government.

See also

• comparative government
• countries by system of government
• list of democracy and elections-related topics
• political science
• tripartite classification of authority by Max Weber

External links

• Types of Governments from Historical Atlas of the 20th Century (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/20c-govt.htm)
• Other classifications examples from Historical Atlas of the 20th Century (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/othergov.htm)