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!