Forms of government

Distribution of Power

• open v. closed societies

Forms of Government

Greek forms of government

• monarchy
• aristocracy:
  • • 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 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
• tryanny
• democracy

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 worse"

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