Modes of government, basic political regimes: signs, brief description

Questions about the forms and methods of public administration were of concern to the ancient Greeks. History during this time has accumulated a huge amount of material for distinguishing various forms and types of political regimes. About their features, classification characteristics and options and will be discussed in the article.

Form of government

State power is necessary for society to function successfully. The society is not capable of self-organization, therefore it always delegates authority and management functions to someone. Even the ancient philosophers found that the forms of government can be: the power of one, the power of a few or the power of many or most. Each form has different variants. The form of government, the form of state structure, the state regime are links of one chain. From the form of government follows the features of political and administrative management in the country, which, in turn, can be realized in a different political regime. The form of government is a way of organizing the system of state power. It determines the nature and characteristics of the political process in the country. The first traditional forms of government are the monarchy and the republic. In this case, each of them allows you to establish different modes of government. This despotic, aristocratic, absolutist, authoritarian, military-bureaucratic, totalitarian, fascist and many others. The state regime depends on the influence of many factors, primarily on who owns the power. The role of the individual in the state structure is extremely high.

Concept of political regime

Plato began to think about the existence of a political regime for the first time. He, in accordance with his idealistic ideas, assumed that there is an ideal state system, where the management is carried out by wise philosophers. All other modes differ in terms of proximity and distance from this model. In the broadest sense, a political or state regime is the distribution of real power and influence in society. This is a way of existence and functioning of a political system that makes the country unique and distinct from other states. The formation of the political regime is influenced by numerous elements of the political system: norms, relations, culture, institutions. A more narrow understanding implies that the regime of government is a concrete way of exercising state power.

Forms of government, political regimes are determined by the culture and traditions of the country, the historical conditions of the state. It is customary to assume that each country has its own form of government, but they have common, universal features that make it possible to create their classification.

The principles of classification of political regimes

Classify political regimes adopted with the following criteria:

• Degree and forms of people's participation in the implementation of government and in the formation of political power;
• The place of non-state structures in governing the country;
• The degree of guarantee of the rights and freedoms of the individual;
• The presence of opposition in the country and the attitude of the authorities towards it;
• The situation with freedom of speech in the country, the situation of the media, the degree of transparency of the actions of political structures;
• Methods of government;
• The situation in the country of power structures, their rights and restrictions;
• The degree of political activity of the country's population.

Kinds of modes

In history, a great deal of experience in managing countries has been accumulated, at least 150 varieties of political regimes can be counted today. The classical classification of Aristotle offers to distinguish types of regimes by two criteria: on the basis of the ownership of the authorities and on the basis of methods of using power. These signs allowed him to talk about such types of political regimes as monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, democracy, tyranny.

Such a system of typology of political regimes today has become much more complicated and different types of them can be singled out according to various criteria. The simplest classification is the division of all varieties into democratic and undemocratic ones, and within it various varieties are revealed. Attempt to take into account a larger number of existing regimes led to their division into basic and additional ones. The first include despotic, totalitarian, authoritarian, liberal and democratic. The second one can be tyrannical, fascist. Later typologies also include such intermediate types as military-bureaucratic, sultanistic, anarchistic, and also several types of authoritarianism: corporate, pre-totalitarian, post-colonial.

A more complicated classification also suggests the following types of already mentioned species: dictatorship, meritocracy, kleptocracy, ochlocracy, plutocracy, feudalism, timocracy, military dictatorship, post-totalitarianism. For certain it is possible to allocate and still any kinds, as each state adjusts existing models of modes under the features and conditions.

State structure and regime of government

Any regime of government in specific states can not exist in its pure form. Traditionally, three types of government are distinguished: a federation, a unitary state and a confederation. Most often there are unitary states, in which the whole territory of the country is subject to a single system of state administration, one constitution and centralized management of all administrative units. At the same time, unitary states can have a democratic regime or an authoritarian regime. But they are much easier to install and authoritarian, and even totalitarian management models. But each time it will be a kind of interpretation of the regime.

For example, Japan and the United Kingdom are examples of a unitary state controlled by the highest representative of a monarchical family. But each state in different degrees realizes the forms of representative democracy. Also, in unitary states, a special regime for the management of individual territories can be established. The federation unites under a single principle several units with relative independence. The confederation unites sovereign administrative entities, which delegate to the bodies of general government only a part of the functions of state power. At the same time, the federation is more predisposed to democratic regimes, since several people should unite in its rule. Confederations do not have such a clear pattern, and internal regimes in the subjects may be different.

The concept and origins of totalitarianism

Traditionally, researchers distinguish totalitarian, democratic and authoritarian regimes as the main varieties of ways to implement political power in the state. Totalitarianism is an extreme form of the undemocratic regime. Historians say that totalitarianism as a rigid variant of dictatorship appears in the 20th century, although there are points of view that then a term was simply invented, and such political regimes existed before.

Researchers say that totalitarianism is based on the media, which become the main tool for spreading ideology. Totalitarianism is understood as absolute control and regulation by the state of all aspects of life, of every single citizen of the country by direct armed violence. Historically, the appearance of this regime is associated with the time of Benito Mussolini's reign in Italy in the 1920s, and Hitler's Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union are also vivid examples of the implementation of this form of government. A well-known study of Z. Brzezinski is devoted to the study of totalitarianism, who writes that such regimes can be recognized by the following signs:

• The country is dominated by the official ideology shared by most citizens, opponents of ideology are subjected to harsh persecution right up to physical destruction;
• The state establishes strict control over the actions and thoughts of citizens, police supervision is called upon to seek out "enemies of the people" for the subsequent indicative punishment of them in order to intimidate the population;
• The main principle in such countries: only what is recognized as official authority is allowed, everything else is prohibited;
• There is a restriction in the freedom to receive information, there is strict control over the dissemination of information, the media are subjected to severe censorship, there can be no freedom of speech and speech;
• Bureaucracy in all spheres of managing the life of society;
• One-party system: in countries with such a regime only the ruling party can be, all the rest are persecuted;
• Militarization of the country, the military power is constantly growing in it, the image of the external enemy is being formed, from which it is necessary to defend;
• Terror and repression as tools of forcing fear;
• Centralized management of the economy.

Surprisingly, totalitarianism can be built on the basis of democracy or on the basis of authoritarianism. The second case is more frequent, an example of total democracy can be the Soviet Union of late Stalinism, when a large number of residents of the country were involved in the system of total surveillance and repression.

Features of authoritarian regime

Describing the modes of government of the state, we should dwell on a more detailed description of their main varieties. Totalitarian, democratic and authoritarian regimes are the three leading options. Authoritarianism occupies an intermediate place between the totalitarian and democratic system of government. Authoritarianism is an undemocratic regime, which means the concentration of unlimited power in the hands of one or more people. The main difference from totalitarianism is the absence of a strong military pressure on the inhabitants of the country.

The main signs of an authoritarian regime are:

• A monopoly on state power is established, which can not be transferred to other people or groups in any case, except for a coup;
• Ban or strong restrictions on the existence of the opposition;
• Rigid centralization of the vertical of power;
• Delegation of power by the principles of kinship or co-optation;
• Strengthening the power bodies to retain power;
• Isolation of the population from the opportunity to participate in the process of governing the country.

Military bureaucracy

A group of military regimes is a variant of authoritarian and totalitarian models. The military-bureaucratic regime is a one-party regime with a bright leader, whose authority is provided by military forces. Most often it is customary to talk about communist varieties of such regimes. The main features of the military bureaucracy are:

• The dominant role of military and security forces in ensuring the implementation of government decisions;
• Presence of a special system of control over the life of society;
• Violence and terror as the main instruments of subordination and motivation of the population;
• Legislative chaos and arbitrariness;
• Officially proclaimed mainstream ideology in the complete absence of opposition.

Tyranny and despotism

The ancient type of totalitarianism is despotic power. Such a regime existed, for example, in ancient Egypt. Power in this case belongs to one person, who received it by right of inheritance. Despot has exclusive power and can not at all correlate his actions with the laws and norms of the country. All outbursts of disagreement with his policies are severely punished, up to and including the use of severe demonstrative executions and tortures. Tyrannical regimes of government differ in that power to one person comes as a result of a military coup. At the same time, the managerial characteristics of the tyrant are close to the behavior of the despot. The power of tyrants is also known for a long time, so historians describe several such examples even in Ancient Greece.

Features of a democratic regime

The most widespread political regimes in the world are various variations of democracy. The form of government of a democratic regime is diverse, but on the whole it has the following characteristics:

• The people are the main source of supreme power, he is the main sovereign in the state;
• The people have the opportunity to demonstrate their will in free elections, the election of power is the most important sign of democracy;
• The citizen's rights are the absolute priority of the authorities, any person or minority is guaranteed to have access to power;
• Equality of citizens before the law and in the administration of the state;
• Freedom of speech and pluralism of opinions;
• Prohibition of any form of violence against a person;
• Mandatory presence of opposition of the ruling party;
• Separation of powers, each branch has sovereignty and is subordinated exclusively to the people.

Depending on how the people participate in the governance of the state, there are two forms of democracy: direct and representative. Forms of representative democracy today are the most common. In this case, the people delegate the right to make decisions to their representatives in different authorities.

Liberalism as a political regime

A special type of democracy is the liberal regime. Ideas of liberalism appear in ancient times, as a political regime, it was first proclaimed in the late 18th century in the US Constitution and the Declaration on Human Rights in France. The main feature of liberalism is the absolute value of man. Any liberal regime is based on three pillars: individualism, property and freedom. The signs of a liberal political regime are:

• Legislative consolidation of human rights for the protection of his individuality and rights to private property;
• Separation of branches of power;
• Publicity and freedom of speech;
• Existence of opposition parties;
• The instability of the political sphere of the country, the participation of the masses in the political life of society;
• The absence of a monopoly on power, the existence of a legitimate mechanism for changing power;
• Freedom of the economy from all control and interference by the state.

Now you know the basic information about the modes of government.