List of countries by system of government

This is a list of countries categorized by system of government.

Contents

Presidential / Separated republics

Where a president is the active head of the executive branch of government and is independent from the legislature. The following list includes democratic and non-democratic states:

Full Presidential Systems

In full presidential systems, the president is both head of state and head of government. There is no prime minister.

Semi-presidential systems

In semi-presidential systems, there is a president and a prime minister. In such systems, the President has genuine executive authority, unlike in a parliamentary republic, but some of the role of a head of government is exercised by the prime minister.

Parliamentary republics

Where a prime minister is the active head of the executive branch of government and also leader of the legislature. However, there is also a president who serves as a symbolic head of state in some figurehead capacity. The following list includes democratic and non-democratic states:

Constitutional monarchies

Where a prime minister is the active head of the executive branch of government and also leader of the legislature. The head of state is a constitutional monarch who only exercises his or her powers with the consent of the government and is largely a figurehead.

Commonwealth realms

Constitutional monarchies, in which Queen Elizabeth II serves as head of state over an independent government. In each Realm, she acts as the monarch of that state, and is usually titled accordingly - for example, Queen of Australia. The Queen appoints a Governor-General to each country other than the United Kingdom to act as her representative. The prime minister is the active head of the executive branch of government and also leader of the legislature.

Semi-constitutional monarchies

The prime minister (or equivalent) is the nation's active executive, but the monarch still has considerable political powers that can be used at his/her own independent discretion.

Absolute monarchies

Monarchies in which the monarch is the active head of the executive branch and exercises all powers.

Theocracies

Non-democratic states based on a state religion where the head of state is selected by some form of religious hierarchy.

One-party and no-party states

Non-democratic states in which political power is concentrated within a single political party whose operations are largely fused with the government hierarchy.

Military Junta states

The nation's armed forces control the organs of government and all high-ranking political executives are also members of the military hierarchy.

Transitional

States which have a system of government which is in transition or turmoil and cannot be accurately classified.

Systems of Internal Governance

Federal

States in which the federal government shares power with semi-independent regional governments. In many cases, the central government is (in theory) a creation of the regional governments; a prime example is the United States.

Devolved

States in which the central government has delegated some of its powers to self-governing subsidiary governments, creating a de facto federation.

Regionalized unitary

States in which the central government has delegated some of its powers to regional governments.

Federacy

A federacy is a country in which some substates function like states in a federation and others like states in a unitary state.

Unitary

see Unitary state

Notes

  1. ^ The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) is a government in exile, located in Tindouf, Algeria. Most of the territory of Western Sahara is under military occupation by Morocco; the rest is administered by the SADR.
  2. ^ In Bangladesh, a Caretaker government takes over for three months during parliamentary elections. The Caretaker government is headed by a Chief advisor (the last Chief Justice to retire), and a group of neutral, non-partisan advisors chosen from the civil society. During this time, the president has jurisdiction over the Ministry of defense and the Ministry of foreign affairs.
  3. ^ There is neither a prime minister nor a president of Switzerland. The President of the Swiss Confederation is merely primus inter pares in the Swiss Federal Council, the seven-member executive council which constitutes the government as well as the head of state of Switzerland.
  4. ^ Bishop of Urgell and President of France serve as ex-officio co-princes
  5. ^ the King gave himself absolute authority for three years in 2005; he has given up absolute power on April 21, 2006, but constitutional government has not yet resumed
  6. ^ Bhutan is in the process of democratization by request of the king.
  7. ^ federation of absolute monarchies; federal president drawn from hereditary emirs
  8. ^ Iran combines the forms of a presidential republic, with a president elected by universal suffrage; and a theocracy, with an unelected religious leader who is ultimately responsible for state policy
  9. ^ on August 3, 2005, the military staged a coup and declared a two year transitional military dictatorship

See also

External links


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