Questions about the forms and methods of public administration worried the ancient Greeks. History during this time has accumulated a huge amount of material to distinguish different forms and types of political regimes. Their features, classification features and variants 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 power and control functions to someone. Even ancient philosophers discovered that forms of government can be: the power of one, the power of a few, or the power of many or the majority. Each form has different options. The form of government, the form of government, the state regime are links in one chain. From the form of government follow the features of political and administrative management in the country, which, in turn, can be implemented 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 flow of politicalprocess in the country. The first traditional forms of government are the monarchy and the republic. Moreover, each of them allows you to set different modes of government. These are 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 system is extremely high.
The concept of a political regime
For the first time, Plato began to think about the existence of a political regime. He, in accordance with his idealistic ideas, assumed that there is an ideal state structure, where the management is carried out by wise philosophers. All other modes differ in the degree of proximity and distance from this model. In the broadest sense, the political or state regime is the distribution of real power and influence in society. This is the way the political system exists and functions, which makes the country unique and different from other states. Numerous elements of the political system influence the formation of the political regime: norms, relations, culture, institutions. A narrower understanding implies that the mode of government is a specific way of exercising state power.
Forms of government, political regimes are determined by the culture and traditions of the country, the historical conditions for the existence of the state. It is generally accepted that each country has its own form of government,however, they have common, universal features that make it possible to create their classification.
Principles of classifying political regimes
Classify political regimes according to the following criteria:
- degree and forms of participation of the people in the management of the country and in the formation of political power;
- the place of non-state structures in the government of the country;
- degree of guarantee of individual rights and freedoms;
- 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 state of the media, the degree of transparency of the actions of political structures;
- ruling methods;
- the situation in the country of law enforcement agencies, their rights and restrictions;
- degree of political activity of the country's population.
Types of modes
History has accumulated extensive experience in managing countries, today we can count at least 150 varieties of political regimes. The ancient classification of Aristotle proposes to single out the types of regimes according to two criteria: on the basis of ownership of power and on the basis of the ways in which power is used. 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, according to a variety of criteria, one can distinguish their various types. The simplest classification is the divisionof all varieties into democratic and non-democratic, and already inside various varieties are revealed. An attempt to take into account a larger number of existing regimes led to their division into basic and additional. The former include despotic, totalitarian, authoritarian, liberal and democratic. The second can be attributed tyrannical, fascist. More recent typologies also include such intermediate types as military-bureaucratic, sultanist, anarchist, as well as several types of authoritarianism: corporate, pre-totalitarian, post-colonial.
A more complex classification also suggests adding the following to the already named types: dictatorship, meritocracy, kleptocracy, ochlocracy, plutocracy, feudalism, timocracy, military dictatorship, post-totalitarianism. Surely, some other types can be distinguished, since each state adjusts the existing models of regimes to its own characteristics and conditions.
State structure and regime of government
Any regimes of government in specific states cannot exist in their pure form. Traditionally, there are three types of government: federation, unitary state and confederation. Most often there are unitary states in which the entire 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 of government or an authoritarian one. But they are much easier to install andauthoritarian and even totalitarian models of governance. But each time it will be a kind of interpretation of the regime.
For example, Japan and Great Britain are examples of a unitary state ruled by the highest representative of the monarchic family. But each state implements forms of representative democracy to varying degrees. Also, in unitary states, a special regime for the management of individual territories can be established. The federation unites several units with relative independence under a single authority. The confederation, on the other hand, unites sovereign administrative entities that delegate only a part of the functions of state power to the bodies of general government. At the same time, the federation is more prone to democratic regimes, since several people should always unite in its board. Confederations do not have such a clear pattern, and the internal regimes in the subjects may be different.
The concept and origins of totalitarianism
Traditionally, researchers identify totalitarian, democratic and authoritarian regimes as the main types of ways to exercise political power in the state. Totalitarianism is an extreme form of non-democratic regime. Historians say that totalitarianism as a hard version of dictatorship arises in the 20th century, although there are points of view that the term was simply coined then, and such political regimes of government existed before.
Researchers say that totalitarianism is based on the media, which becomes the main toolspread of ideology. Under totalitarianism understand the absolute control and regulation by the state of all aspects of life, each individual inhabitant of the country through direct armed violence. Historically, the emergence of this regime is associated with the reign of Benito Mussolini in Italy in the 20s of the 20th century; Hitler's Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union are also considered vivid examples of the implementation of this form of government. The well-known study by Z. Brzezinski is devoted to the study of totalitarianism, who writes that such regimes can be recognized by the following features:
- the country is dominated by the official ideology, which is shared by the majority of citizens, opponents of the ideology are subjected to severe persecution up to and including physical destruction;
- the state establishes strict control over the actions and thoughts of citizens, police supervision is designed to look for "enemies of the people" for subsequent exemplary reprisal against them in order to intimidate the population;
- the main principle in such countries is that only what is recognized by the official authorities is allowed, everything else is prohibited;
- there is a restriction on the freedom to receive information, there is a strict control over the dissemination of information, the media are heavily censored, 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, there can only be a ruling party, everyone else is persecuted;
- militarization of the country, its military power is constantly increasing, the image ofan external enemy to defend against;
- terror and repression as fear-mongering tools;
- 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 during the late Stalinism, when a large number of the country's inhabitants were involved in the system of total surveillance and repression.
Features of an authoritarian regime
Describing the regimes of government of the state, one 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 position between totalitarian and democratic systems of government. Authoritarianism is a non-democratic regime, which refers to the concentration of unlimited power in the hands of one or more people. The main difference from totalitarianism is the absence of strong military pressure on the inhabitants of the country.
The main features of an authoritarian regime are:
- a monopoly on state power is established, which cannot be transferred to other people or groups in any case, except for a coup;
- ban or strong restrictions on the existence of the opposition;
- strict centralization of the vertical of power;
- delegation of power based on the principles of kinship or co-optation;
- strengthening law enforcement agenciesto hold power;
- isolation of the population from the opportunity to participate in the process of governing the country.
Military bureaucracy
The 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 power is provided by military forces. Most often it is customary to talk about the communist varieties of such regimes. The main features of a military bureaucracy are:
- dominant role of the military and law enforcement agencies in enforcing government decisions;
- the presence of a special system of control over the life of society;
- violence and terror as the main instruments of subjugation and motivation of the population;
- legislative chaos and tyranny;
- officially declared dominant ideology with no opposition at all.
Tyranny and despotism
The ancient version of totalitarianism is despotic power. Such a regime existed, for example, in ancient Egypt. The power in this case belongs to one person who received it by right of inheritance. The despot has exclusive power and may not correlate his actions in any way with the laws and norms of the country. All outbursts of disagreement with his policies are severely punished, up to the use of cruel demonstrative executions and torture. Tyrannical regimes of government are distinguished by the fact that power comes to one person as a result of a military coup. Whereinthe managerial characteristics of a tyrant are close to those of a despot. The power of tyrants has also been known for a long time, so historians describe several such examples in ancient Greece.
Features of a democratic regime
The most common political regimes in the world are various variations of democracy. The form of government of a democratic regime is diverse, but in general it is characterized by the following features:
- the people are the main source of supreme power, they are 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;
- citizen's rights are the absolute priority of power, any person or minority is guaranteed access to power;
- Equality of citizens before the law and in government;
- freedom of speech and pluralism of opinions;
- ban on any form of violence against a person;
- mandatory presence of opposition to the ruling party;
- separation of powers, each branch has sovereignty and is solely subordinate to the people.
Depending on how the people participate in government, there are two forms of democracy: direct and representative. Forms of representative democracy are the most common today. In this case, the people delegate decision-making rights to their representatives in various government bodies.
Liberalism as a political regime
A special kind of democracy is the liberal regime. The ideas of liberalism appear inancient times, as a political regime, it was first proclaimed at the end of the 18th century in the US Constitution and the Declaration of Human Rights in France. The main sign of liberalism is the absolute value of man. Any liberal regime is based on three pillars: individualism, property and freedom. Signs of a liberal political regime are:
- legislative consolidation of human rights to protect his individuality and rights to private property;
- separation of branches of government;
- glasnost and freedom of speech;
- existence of opposition parties;
- instability of the political sphere of the country, participation of the masses in the political life of society;
- no 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 governments.
