Forms of government: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
|||
| Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
* open v. closed societies | * open v. closed societies | ||
* | * | ||
questions to ask about "distribution of power" | |||
> do you have to share power? / decision making/ | |||
> who do you have to please/ pay off? | |||
> who can you cut off? | |||
> how do you maintain legitimacy? | |||
== Forms of Government == | == Forms of Government == | ||
* | |||
>> to do Jared Diamond outline of social organization | |||
== Greek word origins of forms of government == | |||
* monarchy | * monarchy | ||
* aristocracy: | * aristocracy: | ||
| Line 38: | Line 46: | ||
* Corporatocracy = rule by corporations | * Corporatocracy = rule by corporations | ||
* Idiocracy = rule by idiots | * Idiocracy = rule by idiots | ||
== Monarchy == | |||
== Absolute monarchy in Europe == | |||
* as states were formed in Europe at the end of the feudal period (see [[Feudalism]] entry) | |||
** monarchs who had governed through alliances and confederations with local or lesser princes or lords | |||
*** centralized state power around themselves | |||
* some monarchs were able to almost completely centralize power around themselves | |||
** as opposed to sharing with a legislature or a church | |||
** others were unable to completely take power | |||
** example, in the Republic of Poland, the king was elected by and subject to the local lords | |||
=== Louis XIV === | |||
* "l'etat c'est moi" = "I am the state" | |||
* "Versailles" | |||
** outside of Paris = detached from the city | |||
*** the traditional palace of French monarchs was the "Louvre", which is inside Paris | |||
* "J'ai failli d'attendre" = "I almost had to wait" | |||
** Louis XIV was purported to have said this when he stepped out of his palace door and his carriage was only just then arriving | |||
** i.e., that he "almost" had to wait was an affront (insult) to him | |||
=== Henry VIII England === | |||
> declared himself head of the Church of England | |||
>> transposes himself for the pope | |||
> selcting bishops | |||
> church taxes (tithes) | |||
> taking church property | |||
=== other Eureopean absolute monarchs === | |||
* Peter the Great of Russia | |||
* Frederick the Great of Prussia (Germany) | |||
=== why / how do absolute monarch lose power? | |||
> they screw things up .... lose legitimacy | |||
> they tax too much to pay for excesses | |||
> they don't allow dissent | |||
>> can't force agreement | |||
so in Europe .. the solution is parliaments | |||
>> allows dissent, allows debate... shares power w/ the king | |||