Governments

picture of anarchy logo  Anarchy

Forerunners of Anarchism include the Greek philosopher Zeno and some Hussite and Anabaptist religious reformers. Ideas of Anarchism were expressed by the French writers Fenelon and Rabelais, and were familiar to 18th-century French intellectuals. The name "anarchist" had been used as a term of reproch during the French Revolution by the moderates (the Girondists) who continued to press for economic and social changes after the overthrow of Louis XVI. First writer to use the term Anarchism was a French anarchist named Pierre Joseph Proudhon who asked the question "What is property?" and he answered "property is theft!", refering to the property in its Roman-law sence of the irresponsible right to use and abuse; in its stead he advocated limited rights of possession in a no-government state of society which he called Anarchy.

Anarchism is the belief that it is practicable and desirable to abolish all organized government, laws and machinery for law enforcement. The basic attitude of anarchism is that Man is good and can be trusted without government, or, at least Man will do less evil without government than with it. Industrial society can and should be run by means of a network of agreements among individuals and groups, associating freely on the basis of locality, region and industrial specilization. The seeming need of society for government is caused only by injustice and unreasonableness of the social order, which should be abolished. Anarchists aim at a stateless society in which harmony is maintained by voluntary agreements among individuals and groups.


picture of communism logo   Communism

A system of social organization based upon common property, or an equal distribution of income and wealth. In 1848 the word communism acquired a new meaning when it was used as identical with socialism by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their famous "Communist Manifesto". They looked upon the industrial working class as the bearer of a new order which would emerge on a world-wide scale as the result of an immanent historical process using the class war as its vehicle. This gave rise to various interpretations, the most noted being those developed by Russian revolutionaries. Because of the success of the Russian Revolution the term communism became associated with ideas and practices of the Russian Marxists, and particularly of those who became the developers of the soviet system of government.


picture of democracy logo   Democracy

The first form of democracy was direct democracy, which is a form of government where the rights to make political decisions is exercised directly by the whole body of citizens, acting under procedures of majority rule. The ancient Greece had several forms of government (6 main types was adviced by Platon and Aristotles) one of them were direct democracy. This was possible because of the limited size of the ancient state, which was generally confined to a city and its rural surroundings and seldom had more than 10,000 citizens.

Today democracy is a representative, which is a form of government where the citizens exercise the same right not in person but through representatives chosen by and responsible to them. The basic organ of government is representative legislature or parliament and the underlying ethical basis is the conception that all men are created equal, and that government exist for the purpose of protecting them in the exercise of certain basic rights.


picture of despotism logo   Despotism

Possession of absolute power. Originally a master, a lord; at a later period it became an honorary title which the greek emperors gave to their sons and sons-in-law when governors of provinces. Bording very close to tyranny.


picture of monarchy logo   Monarchy

A state in which the supreme authority is vested in a single person, the monarch, who is the permanent head of the state. All monarchies in Europe were within certain limits originally elective. After the introduction of Christianity, the essential condition of the assumption of sovereign power was not so much kinship with the reigning family at the consecration or "sacring" by divine authority of the church. In Europe monarchy has survived in Britain, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and Denmark -the last to abandon absolutism. (1849)

All the scandinavian monarchies were notable for their scrupulous constitutionalism and their democratic unpretentiousness. The pattern of all these limited monarchies was set by Britain, a process in which the personal prestige and longevity of Queen Victoria played an important part.


picture of republic logo   Republic

A state not ruled by a monarch or emperor or where the power is not directly in the hands of the people, in contrast with direct democracy. The term has generally been applied to the government of ancient Rome and some Greek city-states. But it was in certain city-states of Italy during the Renaissance, of which the most celebrated are Venice and Florence, that the republic re-emerged as a meaningful designation and form of government. Here again absence of monarchy, of an established lordly ruling family or of a self-imposed absolute ruler was the first test. In such republics a share of control of government was often confined to noble or wealthy privileged families, while the form of government tended to be a small group, co-opted or elected on narrow franchise, though sometimes with a titular head of state, such as the doge in Venice.
The antimonarchical idea constituted a major element in both the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. The former created a lasting republic, the United States, while the second created a temporary republic in France but firmly established the republican idea and spread it throughout most of western Europe. In both revolutions the twin ideas of consent of the government and the rights of man played a major part. During the 19th century, however, the moral significance of the republican idea declined in Europe, where monarchies continued and republics remained a exception. Constitutional government spread in the monarchies, and by the early 20th century the term "republic" no longer connoted the substance and contend of political institution and practice. "Democracy" tended to supplant "republic" in describing governments free from arbitrary and imposed authority.

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