Forms of government

Distribution of Power

• 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

>> to do Jared Diamond outline of social organization

Greek word origins of forms of government

note the hierarchy here from elite / centralized to democratic /popular rule

• monarchy
  • rule of one ("mono")
• aristocracy:
  • rule of the best ("aristo")
    • is most easily understood as a social class as opposed to a form of government
    • as a form of government is a type of oligarchy
    • will rule to protect landed interests and family lineages
  • in other oligarchies, the elites will rule to protect commercial or other interests
• oligarchy
  • rule by many ("oli")
  • rule by elites
• oligarchy v. aristocracy
  • students can become confused by the distinction between the two
    • oli = "many" but only in the sense of more than rule by pure Aristocratic birth
    • oli refers to spread of power to non-landed, non-hereditary elites
• tyranny
  • rule by one but not a monarch
  • power seized not inherited
• republic
  • "res publica" = for the people
  • rule by representatives selected by the people
• democracy
  • rule by the people ("demos")
• mobocracy or ochlocracy
  • rule by mob through intimidation
  • mobs may also be used by unscrupulous politicians

Modern variations of Greek terms

• Kleptocracy = rule by the corrupt
  • from the Greek "kléptō" for "I steal"
  • ex. "kelptomaiac" = one who steals impulsively
• Kakistocracy = rule by the worst
  • from the Greek "kakistos" for "the worst"

click EXPAND for 1877 use of the term:

American poet James Russell Lowell, 1877:

"What fills me with doubt and dismay is the degradation of the moral tone. Is it or is it not a result of Democracy? Is ours a 'government of the people by the people for the people,' or a Kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?"

from [Wikipedia]

• Corporatocracy = rule by corporations
• Idiocracy = rule by idiots

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