A Quick Definitions Reference Sheet for Political Systems
All definitions are taken from the following source:
Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 21 Oct. 2015. Web. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/>.
Anarchy
A state of society without government or law
Aristocracy
A government or state ruled by an aristocracy, elite, or privileged upper class.
Authoritarianism
Of or relating to a governmental or political system, principle, or practice in which individual freedom is held as completely subordinate to the power or authority of the state, centered either in one person or a small group that is not constitutionally accountable to the people.
Communism
A theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.
Democracy
Government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system
Despotism
A system of government in which the power to rule is by a despot (any tyrant or oppressor who exercises absolute authority.
Dictatorship
A country, government, or the form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a dictator (a person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession)
Monarchy
A state or nation in which the supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in a monarch (a hereditary sovereign, as a king, queen, or emperor),
Oligarchy
A form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few
Plutocracy
A government or state in which the wealthy class rules
Republic
A state or government in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.
Socialism
A theory or system of social organization (the structure of social relations within a group, usually the relations between its subgroups and institutions) that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole
Sultanate
the territory ruled over by a sultan (the sovereign or ruler of an Islamic country).
Theocracy
A form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler, the God's or deity's laws being interpreted by the ecclesiastical authorities
Totalitarianism
The absolute control by the state or a governing branch of a highly centralized institution
Tribe
Any aggregate of people united by ties of descent from a common ancestor, community of customs and traditions, adherence to the same leaders, etc.
Revised October 21, 2015Page 1