Human beings are made to live in society, that is, to associate with others in order to reach goals collectively. However, in practice these interactions do not always benefit all parties involved in the same way. There are norms and laws that can tip the balance of justice towards the position of some people , arbitrarily privileged, who use their power to impose their will on others.

On a daily basis, these loopholes through which certain particular interests slip into the political agenda of a country or region are evidenced by the fact that there is still no known political system that, applied here and now, creates conditions of absolute and pure democracy. Instead, there are different forms of government , each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

We will now see what these forms of government look like and how they influence our lives and our way of conceiving social life.

The importance of political systems

Practically since civilisations have existed, there have also been sets of rules and standards governing the behaviour of their citizens. The Code of Hammurabi, for example, is a compilation of laws and rules that is over 3000 years old, created under the Babylonian King Hammurabi, is an example of this.

The reason for this is that cities and civilizations in general are social systems that, going beyond the size of a tribe, are so large and complex that they need a series of rules to maintain a certain stability and harmony . These rules can be applied to all kinds of actions and relationships: from trade to how families should be formed, or even whether one is obliged to attend rituals or not.

But with the excuse of preserving the welfare of a civilization, it is very easy to create situations where a minority has much more power than the rest of the people. To exemplify this we can see the difference between democracy and autocracy .

Two poles to understand the types of government

As we shall see, there are several forms of government, each of which can be understood as an entity completely distinct from the rest, that is, as if each form of government were governed by its own rules and were a watertight category in which all its parts form a single whole.

However, it is also possible to establish a continuum between two poles that allows these political systems to be distributed in a way that ranges from the maximum possible democracy to the minimum level of democracy. This can be useful to remember certain basic characteristics of these forms of power .

Thus, this continuum is established between democratic and autocratic forms of government.

What is autocracy?

Autocracy is a political system in which all power is held by one person or entity. Etymological comes from the Greek word autokrateia, in which “autos” means “oneself” and “krateia”, power.

In these forms of government all decisions and assessments of the results of a political strategy are made not by the population, but by a person or small group of people who hold all the power without anyone else being able to discuss or regulate these actions.

Autocracy can be divided into totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. The former are those in which the State has absolute control over everything that happens at the political level in the region, while in totalitarian ones a limited variety of political parties is allowed to exist (only those whose fundamental ideas do not clash with the interests of the elite).

What is democracy?

This term also comes from the Greek, although in this case instead of “autos” the word “demos” is used, which means “people”. That is, in this form of government, unlike autocracy, all the inhabitants of the area that constitutes the sovereign subject are able to participate equally in political life a .

In practice, however, the debate on what kind of concrete political system generates the purest conditions of democracy is not clear, as we shall see.

The forms of government

Going into more detail, the forms of government can be classified into the following categories .

1. Parliamentary Republic

The republic is a form of government based on the principle of popular sovereignty, which has no exceptions. As part of republican ideas, it assumes that all people are born equal before the law and that there are no inheritance rights that can violate that.

The parliamentary republic, for example, in addition to not having the figure of a king or queen, is based on a parliamentary system in which there is a distinction between Head of State and Head of Government . In this way a clear difference is established between legislative and executive powers.

2. Presidential Republic

In the presidentialist republic there is also no king or queen and there is also a parliament. However, in this case, the head of state is directly elected by the voters, and not by the members of congress or parliament, and also acts as head of government, with the legislative and executive powers being relatively united .

3. One-party Republic

The form of government of the one-party republic is based on the existence of a single political party capable of gaining power and, at the same time, on the holding of elections in which everyone can vote or stand for election (as independents). The democratic character of this system is questioned, although at the same time it does not exactly fit with the concept of dictatorship, since in the latter either there are no elections or they are very limited.

4, Parliamentary Monarchy

In this form of government, there is a king or queen who is the head of state, but his power is very limited by both the legislative and executive branches. In many countries, the type of parliamentary monarchy qu e used gives the monarch a purely symbolic role , created mainly to give an image of unity or to act in cases of national emergency.

5. Absolute monarchy

In absolute monarchies the king or queen has absolute or almost absolute power to impose his will on the rest of the citizens. All the tools of imposition of rules created to regulate social life are placed under the power of the monarch , who can modify them and does not submit to his control.

Traditionally, absolute monarchies have been legitimated under the idea that the king or queen is chosen by divine forces to guide the people.

6. Dictatorship

Dictatorships have the figure of a dictator, who has total control over what happens in the region, and who normally holds this power through the use of violence and weapons. In a sense, a dictatorship is a form of government in which someone has the ability to run the country as a single person might run their home.

Moreover, contrary to what happens in the absolute monarchy, no attempt is made to maintain a positive public image in the eyes of the citizens, they are merely commanded by using terror and threats through rules based on punishment .

  • Related article: “The 5 Types of Dictatorship: From Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism”