Government is an essential part of civilization in modern and historic times. This crucial element of society has been observed in different forms. There are three main systems of governments: autocracy, oligarchy, and democracy. Which system a government belongs to is determined by who hold the sovereignty, meaning who has the supreme power and authority (“Sovereignty”). This leads to there being major differences between autocracies, oligarchies, and democracies.
In an autocracy, one person has all the power. The person can gain their power by being related to the previous ruler, and then it would be also known as a monarchy. Andorra is an example of a current monarchy. Sometimes force is used to attain and hold authority, this is known as a dictatorship. North Korea is a dictatorship, with Kim Jong Un being the dictator. Theocracies can also be autocracies when there is a single religious leader who controls the government, such as Iran. ("Governments: How Do They Run?"). This government system is very fast at making decisions and this can be helpful
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An example of such found in the past would be Sparta. In Sparta, the largest segment of the population was not permitted to vote and only a few had any political power ("Oligarchy"). The Soviet Union could have also been deemed an oligarchy because communist countries are characteristically considered such. Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia can still be thought of as an oligarchy due to the events following the collapse of the communist regimen, a select few accumulated wealth, and along with wealth, political power ("Oligarchy"). Wealth, social standing, and military force are the driving factors that determine which people are in a power welding group. Usually it is a blend of these three factors. The citizens are controlled in oligarchies similarly to autocracies. This is done in order to keep as much power with as few as people as
Robert Michels believed that any political system eventually evolves into an oligarchy. He called this the iron law of oligarchy. According to this school of thought, modern democracies should be considered as oligarchies. Unfortunately, Oligarchy Governments really hide under the name of democratic. As an example, a number of former Soviet states, including Ukraine. Officially, we live in a democratic state, but we all know who is at the helm of state power. Ukraine is called a democratic state, which governed by a few oligarchic clans.
First, let's start out with Oligarchy. There are few men who are in ruling power. They are very wealthy and enjoy a nice easy and simple life. The Oligarchs spent their day hunting and being apart of chariot races, at night they drink wine while laying on the couch and relaxing. But Oligarchy was not so simple as it looks, if you were not one of the few Oligarch you spent your day working all day long in the fields. The textbook says,” The hardworking poor saw the difference between there lives...and they thought it was very unfair,”(Frey,255). The difference of the two live styles never changed they only got worse. The Oligarchs only got richer while the poor only got more poor, and they started to hate the Oligarchs. Eventually the
The type of government that will fit on my island would be democracy, because it is a system of the whole population of the state. I chose democracy because I would want my island to have laws similar to the ones of the United States. The reason why I didn't choose autocracy or oligarchy is because autocracy is a system of one government which means one person makes laws and has all the power to control how things work on the island. Oligarchy is a system in which the groups are small and have little little ideas for the island. The island will need large groups with leaders that will be in charge of certain things on the island this is why I think having democracy is better than the other two. You will have more groups to help you organize
Government is an administration defined by the Constitution, but is also a constantly adjusting foundation by the efforts of its citizens. By Litherland (2014), government is defined as policies set in order to lead a body of people (p. 395). Over the span of time, the idea of government has been stretched, changed, and applied to various communities throughout both the nation and the world. Whether it was back in the eighteenth century, current, or in the very near future—government has existed and will continue to exist for its people and the nation it has built its foundation upon. With the use of multiple authors, those of: “Difference between Direct and Representative Democracy” (n.d.), “Federalism - Dividing Power between States and the
As you can see, all three components play an important part of a basis of a model government, which should reflect in today’s society. These important parts bare different levels of equality and importance to the table. Policy makers should take heed now that we are in the 21st century; many things have changed in 54 years. Foreign policy has heighted due to the global emergence of radicals. Therefore, there is a heighted and imperative need for a well-structured governmental system to ensure quality and responsible decisions made by the people’s policymakers.
Plato's four political regimes can be closely related to several of my classes throughout my four years of high school. His four regimes were Aristocracy/Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy, and Tyranny. The classes that I chose had a significant impact on me and they showed me how to adapt to different ways that a class can be taught. Each class relates to one of Plato's four regimes yet only one varied throughout the year in terms of how they were taught.
The government of the independent states of the world is usually either autocracy or democracy. Autocracy refers to a system where one person has absolute power over a nation. Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. The first wave of democratization started in the early 19th century and persisted until the 1920’s after which many democracies reverted to autocracy. Many democracies failed, creating the first reverse wave. After World War II had ended, the second wave of democratization came along. It was relatively brief with the bulk of countries deferring to autocracy by the 1950’s. The mid-1970’s brought the third wave of democratization which continued in
Essentials of Comparative Politics defines an authoritarian regime as “a political system in which a small group of individuals exercises power over the state without being constitutionally responsible to the public.” It is important to keep in mind that such a regime can be made up of numerous individuals, and not just one person as it is commonly thought of. A regime run by only one person would be known as an autocracy, whereas a group rule would be known as an oligarchy. There are also many different kinds of rulers that an autocrat could be. One example would be a dictator, where the ruler is only interested in accomplishing his goals and shows no care for the interests of the state. Another example would be the
But they were so greedy for land and power that though they controlled the king they quarreled among themselves. They preferred an oligarchy to a central government with an autocratic shah. To weaken the dynasty and ensure their success, the Qizilbash killed most of the Safavid princes including his
Dictatorship is when a country, government, or the form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a dictator. With that being said, the U.S could be described as a dictatorship in many ways. One of the biggest reasons is that we the people have to pay taxes. We don’t have a choice. We are paying the government money in which they didn't earn. They did no work for the money they are taking away from the people. If you don’t pay taxes you get arrested and get sentenced or you have to pay the money back. Also, they could take away your home, your life savings, and you could be fined. Also, every child that is at the age of six has to attend some form of school. There is no way around it. If you aren't enrolled into a school, whether
In Politics, Aristotle explicitly says that the best regime is “kingship.” He reasons, “[that] the term constitution signifies the same thing as civic body [and] that the civic body in every city is the sovereign; and the sovereign must necessarily be either One, or Few, or Many. On this basis we may say that when the One, or Few, or Many rule with a view to the common interest, the constitution under which they do so much necessarily be the right constitution” (1279^a 25, 188). He goes on to say that according to ‘customary usage’ the government type that focuses on the common interest is kingship.
In the modern world, most of the countries have democratic government, which means that decisions are made by the people, who rule and govern the state. However, there is not a single state that practices perfect democracy due to different reasons. Governments are too big, which makes it very complex for every citizen to have a voice in decisions. Or, governments are claimed to be democratic, but in practice they can be close to authoritarian or even totalitarian regimes where one person has a power to make and enforce laws. Political power is not allocated evenly among all members of society, so, in this or that way, governments tend to fall in the hands of the few, whom we can call the elite or the power elite.
How did governments form and change? Well, Aristotle believed that the root of all governments is derived from Democracy and Oligarchy. Aristotle noticed that there will always be a larger amount of poor people in the population, and a small amount of wealthy people in the population. Democracy is defined as a government that is run by the majority of the people, meaning that everyone has a fair say in what happens. However, Oligarchy is geared toward the small number of wealthy people in the population who run the government. Thus showing that the two forms of government seem opposing of each other.
Over the years, people have been witnesses of different forms of government such as monarchy, democracy, authoritarianism and more. All these forms of government, different from each other due to their views, goals, role in the history and more important on the role of the population. The fight for establishing the perfect type of government still going on nowadays. The role of the government is the fundamental element in determining the type of regime. However, today I am going to be more concentrated in one of the forms of government which is the dictatorship and I am going to stretch on what result from this type of government.
A state is sovereign when its magistrate owes allegiance to no superior power, and he or she is supreme within the legal order of the state. It may be assumed that in every human society where there is a system of law there is also to be found, latent beneath the variety of political forms, in a democracy as much as in a absolute monarchy, a simple relationship between subjects rendering habitual obedience, and a sovereign who renders obedience to none. This vertical structure, of sovereign and subjects, according to this theory, is analogous to the backbone of a man. The structure constitutes an essential part of any human society which possesses a system of law, as the backbone