DID YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF GOVERNMENTS?

By the pen of Gitau Wa Kung'u.

 Curiosity about human nature has always befuddled the greatest and smallest human minds since ages unknown. Humanity has found itself under myriad different leadership, leadership styles and governments. Different styles of governance include aristocratic, anarchistic, democratic, theocratic, authoritarian, oligarchic, totalitarian, socialist, communist and military dictatorial governments.

1. Aristocratic governments:

 Here, leadership is chosen from best education giants, people with outstanding family lineage or career succes stories (the aristocrats). Here, the aristocratic family is noble, wealthy and is believed to have the leadership blood running in their veins. Thus, the nobles rule the rest of their community whose members have a lower socioeconomic class. Aristocratic governments have been both good and bad, peaceful and chaotic, strong and weak with respect to the person who is the leader. Aristocratic governments are very related to monarchical governments. Among most notable aristocratic governments are the Great Britain, Russia, Germany and ancient Palestinian kingdoms, Israel included. 

2. Anarchistic governments:

 They are characteristic of chaos and disorder caused by lawlessness due to lack of formal leadership and ruler. They are usually results of civil wars, ethnic clashes and coups. Anarchistic governments however have a short lifespan and they can be closely related with military dictatorial leadership as anarchist military or rebel leaders take over power and have to be crudely tough on the people to instill fear and thus gain support. Anarchistic governments have been there in Spain, South Africa, Germany, Mexico, Ukraine, Sri Lanka among others.

3. Monarchical governments:

These are governments ruled by one leader (king, queen or emperor/emperor). Leadership is hereditary in a family alongside birth order in a family tree of a conqueror ancestor. Monarchical like aristocratic governments had to inculcate more devolved sharing of power due to pressure by modern government forms like democracy. This tact was insightful in that mornachs retained their power and influence and prevented any chance of anarchy to dethrone them. For instance, Queen Elizabeth is the monarchical Queen of great Britain who controls the government through the help of a democratically elected prime minister and his cabinet. 

4. Oligarchical governments:

Leadership is under stewardship of few aristocrats and nobles who in this essence are called oligarchs. Oligarchs are oftenly members of a wealthy, prosperous families, more powerful race or members of nobility. However, they are different from both aristocratic and monarchical governments in that it the ruling class are cohorts of military leaders or warlords who lead rebel groups who do not respect democracy or consider rights of the lower social and economic class. Therefore, oligarchic governments can be said to be totalitarian because oligarchs have excessive power and authority over their subjects.  Like anarchist governments, they don't rule for long before the people rebel. Apartheid regime of South Africa where the minority whites ruled over majority blacks with a hand of iron until the international community forced the oligarchic British colonial  government to release South Africa's first president Nelson Mandela and grant the nation independence in 1994.

5. Theocratic governments:

They are rule by God or a religious group. Practically, God barely shows up physically to lead government, thus, a high priest, prophet or chief religious leader of the dominant religion is taken as the personal representative of God who can mediate between the people and God. Therefore, his/her word is taken as authority from God. Religious doctrines and laws are respected as the legal basis of passing judgement and directing leadership as well as other social ethics. The Bible says that God used judges like Joshua son of Nun, Gideon, Samson and many others after Moses died in the wilderness in the revolutionary journey from enslavement by Egypt to the promised land Canaan. Until the people asked the last judge, Samwel to appoint for them a physical king, Israel was a theocracy. Vatican City can also be said to be theocratic because the Pope, head of Christian Roman Catholic Church is the president. Iran is the best example of a modern theocratic state too. The supreme leader of "Shiite" religious leaders has power above the elected president and the Shariah Muslim laws are regarded equally to the constitution of a democratic country. 

6. Colonial governments.

Leadership and authority is held and commanded by a certain immigrant group who migrate to foreign lands, conquer the natives and rule over them. Colonialists plausibly do not lose ties and active connection to their homeland and there hides the power of their minority rule over the majority rule. They usually exploit the natives and their native natural resources. Colonial governments usually teach the indigenous inhabitants their language, legal codes, their education, ethics and religion to suppress chances of rebellion and anarchy that would be the end of their power, influence and leadership. European superpower nations are good examples of colonial governments especially since the scramble and partition of Africa in the young 20th century. Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal and Italy were the colonial masters of their African colonies for almost three quarter of 20th century.

7. Communist governments.

These are governments that subscribe to the Marxist philosophy of German philosopher Karl Marx. Communist governments are governed by a single party Here, there is no social class, resources and property are owned communally. Therefore, every citizen is expected to work for the wider good to benefit himself and everybody else. The Soviet Union communist one party regime combited the Marxist and Vladimir Lenin philosophy (Marxist Leninism). Modern communist governments include China, Vietnam and Cuba.

8. Socialist governments.

These subscribe to the socialism philosophy that is substantially embedded in Communism. They are a centralised government which manages the communally owned goods, services and resources and the means of production too. Here, citizens are expected to work similarly to the communist way. They work and benefit according to their ability  and respective needs. Free education, free healthcare and free government services are enjoyed by all citizens. Socialist governments include Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

It is worth noting that:

1. Modern Monarchical and aristocratic governments can be said to be partly authoritarian with respect to freedom igiven to their subjects unlike in anarchist or oligarchic governments where the subjects are denied rights and/or oppressed. 

2. Monarchical and aristocratic governments have expanded their influence and power through conquest of foreign lands and established their colonial governments to manage their respective colonies.

Researched and collected by Gitau Wa Kung'u.