Types of Governments Cheat Sheet by pryl

A form of government where a corpor­ations, or government entities with private components control the country. The U.S. is falling towards this direction.

Government of the people, from the people, for the people.

Rule by a totali­tarian and corpor­atist govern­ment.

Rule by women, or a government which regards female humans as entitled to rule and to exercise power over men.

Government by a usually hereditary class of military landow­ners, who exact goods and services from a peasant class in exchange for protec­tion. Usually features complex webs of loyalties and ranks.

A realm which primarily exercises power over the sea via naval power, as opposed to a tellur­ocracy which rules land.

Anarchy is lack of a central govern­ment, as there is no one recognized governing authority.

A form of government (or lack thereof) with no ruling hierarchy, instead decisions are made at a directly democratic level: laws are created by citizens alone, although they may be enforced by instit­utions that are not publicly contro­lled.

A utopian type of society and government in which people of rank, including those holding political office, are those who possess epistemic humility.

Rule by mob or a mass of people

A political ideology which maintains that the state's only legitimate function is the protection of indivi­duals from aggres­sion.

Rule by men, or a government which regards male humans as entitled to rule and to exercise power over women.

Any of a wide variety of non-mo­nar­chical govern­ments where eligib­ility to rule is determined by law.

A form of government in which a god or deity is recognized as the state's supreme civil ruler.

A form of government in which the political power is held by a single, self-a­ppo­inted ruler. This should be distin­guished from monarchy, which involves some tradit­ional basis for that power, usually birth, and is often weakened (espec­ially in modern times) by the presence of counte­rva­iling instit­utions, like a Parlia­ment.

Rule by an all-po­werful indivi­dual. A less polite term for "­aut­ocr­acy."

A government wherein appoin­tments are made and respon­sib­ilities are given based on demons­trated talent and ability, usually encour­aging "­mer­it".

A form of government in which power effect­ively rests with a small elite segment of society distin­guished by royal, wealth, intell­ectual, family, military or religious hegemony.

Rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth.

A system of government in which there is no distin­ction between the military and the civil power.

Rule by a selfish or otherwise bad single ruler. Prime example: North Korea.

Rule by goat. Without a doubt, the most superior form of governance known to any creature ever.

A stateless society composed of sovereign indivi­duals living within the constr­aints of a corpor­atist market.

A hypoth­etical stateless entity that follows after socialism as according to Marxist theory.

System of government proposed by economist Robin Hanson based on the idea of voting on a certain outcome and then figuring out how to achieve it.

Government by the least qualified or most unprin­cipled people, "­Gov­ernment by the worst."­

A government that operates under the rules of a dead ruler.

Rule by those who are strong enough to seize power through force or cunning.

A form of government in which engineers, "­sci­ent­ist­s", and other technical "­exp­ert­s" are in control of decision making in their respective fields.

Aristo­cracy (from the Greek "rule of the best") is government rule by a few elite citizens. Usually the "­eli­te" positions in question are heredi­tary. It was one of the six forms of government identified by Aristotle, and he said it was the second best, after monarchy but before consti­tut­ional govern­ment. Moreover, if corrupted, it resulted in only the second worst form of govern­ment, oligarchy.