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A form of government is a term that refers to the set of political Institutions by which a State is organized in order to exert its powers over a political community.http://assets.cambridge.org/052184/3162/excerpt/0521843162_excerpt.pdf Kopstein and Lichbach, 2005 Synonyms include "regime type" and "system of government". This definition holds valid even if the government is illegitimate or if it is unsuccessful in exerting its power. Regardless of its qualities, a failed government is still a form of government. Churches, corporations, clubs, and other sub-national entities also have "government" forms, but in this article only the organization of states is discussed. Eighteen nations in the World do not explicitly name their government forms in their official names (the official name of Jamaica , for instance, is simply "Jamaica"), but most have an official name which identifies their form of government, or at least the form of government toward which they are striving:
The invocation of democracy is common in the official names of republics - North Korea is a Democratic People's Republic , four states are simply Democratic Republics, and Sri Lanka is a Democratic Socialist Republic . States which wish to emphasize that their provinces have a fair amount of autonomy from the central government may specifically state this: Germany and Nigeria are each a Federal Republic , Ethiopia is a Federal Democratic Republic , the Comoros is a Federal Islamic Republic , and Brazil is a Federative Republic. The sometimes utilized name Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia emphasizes this nation's separateness from the neighboring Greek region of the same name. Government ideology is also a common signifier appended to "republic". Besides the Comoros, four other nations specifically dictate that they are Islamic Republics. Asian nations influenced by is a People's Democratic Republic, and Bangladesh and China are People's Republics. Vietnam is a Socialist Republic. Finally, Tanzania emphasizes the cohesion of its state as a United Republic.
ATTRIBUTES OF GOVERNMENT Beyond official typologies it is important to think about Regime types by looking at the general attributes of the forms of government http://www.polisci.ccsu.edu/brown/regime_types.htm: #Traditional ( Clan or Kinship ) or modern (bureaucracies) #Personalistic (North Korea) or impersonal (Germany) # Totalitarian (Nazi Germany), Authoritarian (Zimbabwe) or Democratic (Belgium) # Election s (US) or heredity (Brunei) #Direct (Mexico) or indirect elections (Electoral College in the US) #Secular (European Union) or non-secular (Iran) # Division Of Powers , such as Executive , Judicial , and Legislative boxes (India) or absence of division of powers (Peru under Fujimori ). #Parliamentarian (Greece), Presidential (USA) or Monarchical (UK). #Number of people in the Executive power (Switzerland has 7, France 2, US 1). #Composition of the legislative power (autocratic, unicameral, bicameral...) #Number of coalitions or party-appointed legislators in Assemblies #Federal (Argentina) or Unitary (France, China) #Rules of the Electoral System : ##plurality (most votes wins) - known as "First past the post" (U.K) ##majoritarian (51%), including run-off elections (Argentina) ##supermajoritarian (usually from 55% to 75% - there is a 60% Cloture rule in the U.S. Senate, and there was a 55% independence vote for Montenegro) ##unanimity - (100% votes wins) (such as for the board of directors of a company) #Type of Economic System #Prevalent Ideologies and Cultures #Strong institutional capacity (US) or weak capacity (Iraq) #Legitimate (South Africa) or illegitimate (former communist Romania) #''De facto'' (effective control) or ''De jure'' (nominal control) of government #Sovereign (US), semi-sovereign (Puerto Rico), or not sovereign (Chechnya) # Racial Segregation ( Rhodesia ) or Desegregation OTHER EMPIRICAL AND CONCEPTUAL PROBLEMS On the surface, identifying a form of government appears to be easy. Most would say that the United States is a fields of Comparative Politics and International Relations . One important example of a book which attempts to do so is Robert Dahl 's Polyarchy (Yale University Press (1971)). One approach is to further elaborate on the nature of the characteristics found within each regime. In the example of the in the form of Referendum s and for Deliberative Democracy in the form of the extensive processes required for constitutional amendment. Another complication is that a number of Political Systems originate as Socio-economic Movement s and are then carried into governments by specific Parties naming themselves after those movements. Experience with those movements in power, and the strong ties they may have to particular forms of government, can cause them to be considered as forms of government in themselves. Some examples are as follows:
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