I’m Mr. Beat (Turn to Capitol) Government, amirite?
Everybody’s always talking about or complaining about the Government
But what IS “The Government?”
Well, according to the dictionary, “government” means “the governing body of a nation, state,
or community.” Wow, that’s actually not that very helpful. Ok, let’s consider the second definition.
“The relation between a governed and a governing word.” What the heck? Not helpful either.
Ok, here’s a better definition. Government means the people who run
a society. See, that wasn’t that difficult.
More specifically, the folks who make society’s rules and actually have the
power and authority to guarantee that those rules are followed.
So what’s politics then?
Politics? That’s just how the power in government is distributed.
The purpose of the government is to protect society. More specifically,
to resolve conflicts, defend a society from other societies, or provide public services.
Now, people often get really passionate about government and politics because the decisions
these folks in government make on a daily basis can have a HUGE effect on all of a society,
or even all of the societies in the world. This is also why people have different opinions about the
role of government in a society, and even what the best type of government is.
In this video, I am going to explain every major type of government,
and at the end of the video, of the channel World of Antiquity will be chiming in.
hey there mr beat thanks for inviting me into this video i can't wait to dig into this topic with you
and i'll try to shed a little light on the ancient origins of some of these forms of government
Let’s start with two basic categories. Governments are generally either democratic or undemocratic.
So our first type of government is democracy.
A democracy is any form of government in which the power belongs to the people
and is exercised by them. The word “democracy” comes from the Greek word “demos,”
meaning “the people,” and “kratia” meaning “rule.” The people rule. In other words,
government exists through the consent of the people and reflects the will of the majority.
What say you, David?
if we use a looser sense of the word democracy we could trace its origins all the way back into
prehistoric times when tribes would make decisions through consensus by the majority of members
sometimes this is called primitive democracy and actually with much of our decision making today
we use primitive democracy i mean five friends get together and decide what restaurant they're
gonna eat at the majority often rules right if we're talking specifically about a fully formed
governmental system though athens is commonly considered the birthplace of democracy it wasn't
the only greek city state or polis that had democracy but it appears to have been the first
it was developed after the overthrow of the tyrant hippies
and devised largely by a fellow named kleisthanes he introduced the idea
of the equality of rights for all male citizens any of them was free to vote and hold office women
slaves foreigners etc were left out but it was progressive for its time because
it broke up the class system that had been firmly established in days gone by athens had a pure or
direct democracy the citizens as a group made all the decisions directly the government
leaders the archons were for the most part administrators who followed the will of the people
Groovy. Thanks.
The two main forms of democracy are representative democracy and direct democracy.
A direct democracy, also known as pure democracy, is where people, as the name suggests, directly
vote on government decisions. Realistically today, direct democracy works better in small communities
where citizens can meet regularly to discuss new changes they want to make with their government.
The first example of a direct democracy that comes to mind for me would be an industrial democracy,
in which workers in a workplace make decisions about how their workplace should be run.
A representative democracy is an indirect democracy in which
representatives in government vote on behalf of the people they represent.
Look, we all have stuff to do. We have jobs to work at, bills to pay, chores to get done
around the house, sports to play, and YouTube channels to watch. We don’t have time to keep
up with everything the government is up to. So we elect politicians, or people who hold
or are seeking political office in government. We trust they will vote in our best interest. This
is a representative democracy, and it is by far the most common type of democracy in the world.
Oh it doesn’t stop there, there are many, many types of representative democracies.
I’m not going to go through all of them, but here are a few examples until I get bored with it.
The most common type of representative democracy is a republic. Actually,
if you look up most definitions of republic in various dictionaries,
they use the words “republic” and phrase “representative democracy” interchangeably.
Weirdos. But basically, a republic is any type of representative democracy where the people
have a say in the executive branch, or part of the government that is supposed to carry out the laws.
You want to chime in about republics, David?
yes the word republic is a name that comes from the romans it's latin for a public thing and they
use it to refer to their governmental system this is prior to the empire today we use it in a more
technical sense to mean a representative democracy and that's what the romans had instead of having
the people making decisions directly the people elected government magistrates and allowed them
to make the decisions if they didn't like what the magistrates were doing they would elect someone
else to take their place at the end of their term the roman republic was led by many officials
but the consuls were at the very top there were two of them each elected for a term of one year
the romans also had a senate which advised the government magistrates and an assembly
composed of the citizenry which made the laws sometimes you'll hear about republics existing in
ancient india we don't have much documentation on this but these governments usually referred to as
ganasangas were from around the time of the buddha and they had assemblies we don't know
how representative these assemblies were or how elections were held and these states
were usually ruled by kings so they probably weren't entirely representative democracies
in the strict sense anyway but a greek historian named deodoris who lived in the first century bce
does refer to some of the states of india as democracies there's some question as to
what he meant because the word democracy at that time didn't have a strict definition
but it is interesting Dang you’re good.
A parliamentary democracy is where the executive branch gets its power from and is held accountable
to a legislature, or the part of the government that MAKES the laws. In this system, that
legislature is usually called a parliament, thus the name parliamentary democracy...get it? Ha!
A presidential democracy is where the executive branch exists
separately from the legislature. They have separate, distinct powers. In this system,
the head of the executive branch is usually called the President,
thus the name presidential democracy...get it? haha I swear this stuff just makes sense, ya know?
Other representative democracies include demarchis, where citizens in a society are
randomly selected to make government decisions on behalf of everyone else,
and nonpartisan democracy, where elections take place without reference to political parties.
Ok, so there are also semi-direct democracies, in which representatives
are there for day-to-day stuff, but the citizens still make the big decisions.
Both direct and representative democracies have three main ways
citizens make decisions: referendums, initiatives and recalls. A referendum
is simply the process in which voters either approve a new law or get rid of an old law.
An initiative is a process that allows citizens to introduce new things to vote on. And finally,
recalls are the process of removing the power of an elected official.
Ok, I suppose we ought to now address that other category.
Undemocratic governments. (scary sound effects)
In undemocratic societies, the people have no say about their government. They basically just have
to go along with whatever their government does, whether they like it or not. In these societies,
leaders get to power by...um….other means. Any type of government where
the people have no say yet the people must obey is called an authoritarian government.
Now let’s run through those delicious types of authoritarian governments.
First, there are autocracies, or governments in which power is held by one person. The two
main types of autocracies are monarchies and dictatorships, and it really just comes down to
how that one person comes to power. If the person comes to power through inheritance from a parent
or another relative, it’s a monarchy. This person who has all the power for life
or until they are kicked out at least is called a monarch. Duh! Titles of monarchs are different
around the world. They could be a king or queen, prince or princess, emperor or empress, archduke,
duke or grand duke, emir, sultan, whateva. If the person comes to power by just taking it,
often through a military takeover, then it’s a dictatorship. Some dictatorships are totalitarian,
which means the dictator both sets the goals and controls almost all aspects of a society.
You know a lot about dictatorships, don’t you, David. Didn’t you used to be one?
i still am in the classroom the word dictator comes from the romans as well you see when they
formed the republic some people thought that in times of crisis such as a war the republican
system as it was might not work that well they wanted at these times a man to be given complete
and total power over the state so that quick decisions could be made they called him a dictator
and they did use them from time to time this man had the power of life and death over everyone in
the state but he would only be able to rule for six months then everything would go back to normal
some men ended up abusing this power sula and julius caesar for example the word tyrant
comes from the ancient greeks originally the word had no negative connotation
a tyrant was simply the name of an authoritarian ruler of a greek city-state
they were quite popular in the archaic period but after the reign of hippies of athens whom
everybody hated the word tyrant started to become distasteful and that's one of
the reasons why tyranny is considered a bad thing today except in the classroom where my word is law
So tyrannical, I love it. Thanks David.
Now, most autocracies are really oligarchies. An oligarchy is a government in which the power is
held by just a few people. These people often have family ties, but not always as we’ll see in a bit.
Throughout history, oligarchies have been the most common type of government in the world,
and the fact that they are losing control around the world is surprisingly a pretty recent trend.
Got anything to add about oligarchies, David?
well i always have something to add oligarchies are some of the oldest forms of government around
aristocracies for example were one of the most common forms of government in the ancient world
sometimes they existed in harmony with monarchies and tyrannies with the nobility sharing power with
the state head who himself was a noble but other times they were formed when the nobles became
discontented with single rulers and overthrew them taking power for themselves and ruling
without a king or head of state you might think this would be an improvement but
wealthy landowners often dominated the political systems to the detriment
of the poorer classes in fact it was resentment against this kind of government
that led to the establishment of the forms of government that we were just talking about
Thanks David. I’d totally have you on my oligarchy team. (turns to camera) Oh there
be lots of different types of oligarchies as well. I will also just go over a few specific ones here.
An aristocracy is rule by the nobility,
or a small class of privileged folks who claim a higher status at birth than the rest of society.
A plutocracy is rule by the wealthy. Keep in mind that plutocratic influence can affect any
type of government. For example, in a republic, if most of the elected representatives depend on
money from wealthy patrons, it’s basically a plutocratic republic.
A stratocracy is rule by military leaders.
A theocracy is rule by religious leaders who rule based on their religious beliefs and values.
The problem with most oligarchies is that they are often just kleptocracies. A kleptocracy is
a government in which those in power are corrupt and there at the expense of the governed.
You know, like spending taxpayer money on lavish mansions for themselves. Stuff like that.
And finally, anarchy! (screams)
Anarchy just means a society with no government. Throughout history, anarchy has often happened as
a natural, yet temporary result of a violent revolution or civil war within a country,
where an established government has been destroyed and a new government has yet to take its place.
That said, there is a sizable group of anarchists out there who think governments should not exist.
Many also believe that one day societies can reach a point where governments are no longer needed.
Now, there are adjectives. Ya know, words you can keep adding on before governments to further
distinguish them. We all love adjectives, except they do make things more complicated.
A big adjective used to describe governments is “constitutional.” If a government
has a constitution that formally limits its power, it’s constitutional. While representative
democracies commonly have constitutions, did you know some monarchies do, too? Yep,
there are constitutional monarchies, in which the monarch’s powers are limited by a constitution.
At this point in the video, I’ve probably made some political science dorks upset,
so I will wrap this video up by saying that I have obviously really
simplified government types for the sake of clarity in this video.
You see, every government is unique, and often a society’s government is a
combination of different governments with weird qualifiers and caveats.
Take my home country, for example. The United States. I’ve always taught my American
Government students that the United States is a representative democracy. Oh, and a republic.
Oh, and a constitutional republic. Oh, and a democratic republic. So yeah,
I just really like to confuse my students, and I guess I like to confuse you, too.
And now, the moment only some of you have been waiting for. I will now reveal
my favorite type of government. Drum roll please.
Drum roll. (drum roll) Thank you.
My favorite type of government is a republic. Oh,
but more specifically, a parliamentary form of a nonpartisan democracy. Basically,
we elect leaders to a parliament without reference to political parties. Booyah!
So do you agree with me? If you don’t agree with me, let me know in the comments why you have
incorrect opinions. A special thank you to Dr. David Miano (mee ah no) of the channel World of
Antiquity for his appearance in my video. Be sure to check out his channel. It features some really
accessible stuff about ancient civilizations and it’s ridiculously underrated. Thanks for watching!