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List of countries by system of government

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This is a list of countries categorized by system of government.
States by their systems of government as of April 2006. <hr /> <span style=██  ██  ██  ██  ██  ██  ██  ██  ██ " title="States by their systems of government as of April 2006.
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States by their systems of government as of April 2006.
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The above image, including only those states designated "electoral democracies" in Freedom House's 2006 survey &#091;Freedom in the World&#093;.
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The above image, including only those states designated "electoral democracies" in Freedom House's 2006 survey [Freedom in the World].

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 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 hiearchy.

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 hiearchy.

Nations currently under military rule

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.

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.

Unitary

see Unitary state

Notes

See also

External links

 

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