Different Types of Governments

The government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. ~ Mark Twain

There exist different types of government and every type of government has its own set of positive as well as negative aspects. Every country has embraced some kind of government rule which will be further explained here.

Different Kinds of Governments

There are so many variations of what a government body constitutes, which is made clearer in the following types of governments.

Federal Government A government with top authority segregates power between a number of smaller governments that rule in states, where different affairs are delegated to these smaller governments by the ruling central government. Monarchy Monarchy implies rule or the power of government in the hands of an individual who in his hereditary line becomes next in line to take over the throne. Currently there exists thirty-one monarchs reigning over forty-five extant sovereign monarchies in the world, sixteen of which are Commonwealth Realms that formally recognize Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state and Prince Charles as heir. Despotism Despotism is the form of rule wherein a single leader rules the entire population and all his or her subjects are considered to be his or her slaves. The Pharaoh of Egypt is an example of this sort of rule. In case of contemporary contexts, the term implies tyrannical rule. Dictatorship Dictatorship implies rule by an individual who has complete power over the country, where even a small group of people can help in ruling the government. Although there have been several definitions of dictatorship, broadly all the various types and forms of dictatorship tend to exhibit totalitarian characteristics. When the power of the government does not come from the people, it is unlimited and tends to expand their scope of power to control every aspect of people's lives. Some countries have its own army take over the government, where there is no election process by the people but more a forced act of rule by the dictating party. Oligarchy Oligarchy is the form of government where a small group has the power to govern or rule. Aristotle had coined the term oligarchy as synonym for rule by the rich (which is known as plutocracy), where oligarchy now simply refers to rule of the privileged few. Even if the wealthy had military backing that was strong, they were able to rule over a nation. Democracy Democracy is best described by Abraham Lincoln as a form of government that is of the people, by the people and for the people. It is a form of government, which allows people to choose the representatives amongst themselves who are given the rights to form the government. A democracy usually has a standard constitution that confers certain rights of freedom and expression (and many other rights) to its citizens and expects certain duties from them and a uniform law to govern the entire nation. Elections are carried out where a process of voting ensues. The people then vote for representatives of the government that they see fit to run the government, where this recurs every couple of years where a new body is elected. Communist Government A communist government is a form of government in which the state is governed by a one-party system. This form of government works on the lines of Marxism-Leninism. Thus, the state and the communist party claim to act in accordance to the wishes of the working class or the peasantry. Although a communist government claims to implement democratic dictatorship of the proletariat, it tends to incline towards the abolition of the state and implementation of communism. Theocracy This kind of government is when a religious hierarchy of administration is identical to that of the government, where the latter is under the religious ruling administration. It is when a religious body takes over the government, where if a church or a kind of religious group were to govern a nation, it would be termed as ecclesiocracy. They believe in being ruled by the highest authority 'God', where they are believed to be functioning under his guided influence. Anarchy An anarchical nation is where no government rules, and there is a constant fight between groups to obtain power. There is complete disarray and chaos, where no law exists and an authority of any sort is absent.

In addition to this, there are several countries that function on hybrid forms of government. One contemporary example could be Iran with its combination of democratic and theocratic institutions or even The Netherlands, which combines the elements of monarchy and democracy.