The main features of the country are the presence of territory and public authority, a monopoly on the publication of legislative acts, the legal use of force and the collection of tax revenues from the population, which are necessary for the material support of the policy and maintenance of the state apparatus.
State power is a variety of public authority, and its form is a determining element in the system of organization of authorities, the order of their formation, interaction with each other and with citizens, competence and terms of activity.
The main forms and modes of government
The main forms of government are the monarchy and the republic. In the first case, the supreme power belongs to the monarch - the sole leader of the country. The monarch inherits the throne and is not responsible to citizens. Distinguish between absolute (all power is concentrated in the hands of only one person) and limited (power is divided between the monarch and other state bodies) monarchy. Limited may be:
- Estate-representative. In this case, state bodies are formed on the basis of their representatives belonging to a certain estate. Currently, there are no such monarchies in the world. Example: Zemsky Cathedral in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Russia.
- Constitutional. In such a monarchy, power is limited by the constitution, and there is another higher state body, which is formed by elective means. The constitutional monarchy is divided into dualistic (the ruler has the highest power and the right to remove the parliament) and parliamentary (separation of powers between the parliament and the ruler).
In the republic, all the highest authorities are elected by the will of the people or are formed by certain authorized institutions for a limited period. Elected politicians bear full responsibility to the people. Republics are presidential, parliamentary, mixed, or collegial (directories) when executive power belongs to a group of authorized persons. Today, this form of government is typical of Switzerland, where the Federal Council consists of only seven members.
Autocracy as a form of government: concept
Autocracy is translated from Latin as "autocracy" or "autocracy". From this, the main features of this form of government are already becoming visible. So, autocracy is a form of government based on the uncontrolled and sole, absolute power of one person. In history, this term also denotes cases of endowment with unlimited powers of individual subjects of state activity.
In the modern sense, autocracy is authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, where the leader exercises complete and uncontrolled power. The latter is also called leaderism, i.e., the affirmation of a person in the role of an indisputable leader. In many ways, autocracy and dictatorship are similar, autocracy and absolute monarchy, autocracy and authoritarianism.
Some features of an autocratic form of government
This form of government is characterized not only by the unlimited power of the ruler, but also by other features. Political decisions under an autocratic regime rarely contribute to development, since they often deny the usual universal human values: freedom, justice, equality, and so on. Autocratic rule is opposed to democracy and the principles of political pluralism.
For modern states, such a form of government as autocracy is a transient, but still insurmountable phenomenon.
Types of autocracies in terms of state bodies functions
Autocracies are divided into totalitarian and authoritarian. The first type of government is based on the moral support of the majority of the population, the formal and demonstrative participation of people in the formation of the highest power and the active intervention of the state in all spheres of the country's public life. Authoritarian boards are characterized by relative autonomy of the authorities. Such a rule, as a rule, has a limited impact on society.
Autocracy and the law of necessary diversity
The inefficiency of autocracy as a form of state power is spoken by many historians, political scientists and researchers. Even mathematical laws confirm that autocracy is not the most effective mode. So, according to the law of necessary diversity (also known as Ashby's law), the diversity of the system that governs something should not be less than the diversity of the system over which control is carried out. And since the βdiversityβ of the one who concentrates all power in his hands is obviously less than the diversity of the rest of society, the autocratic form is characterized by a drop in efficiency.
In order to comply with the law of necessary diversity, in order to maintain full power, the monarch or leader must artificially suppress the diversity of other members of society. This explains the cruelty of autocratic regimes, a tendency to ideological propaganda, complete unification and a complete ban on any manifestations of personality.
Examples of autocratic rule in history
Examples of autocracies in antiquity are the monarchies of the Ancient East and tyranny in individual Greek states, as well as the Roman and Byzantine empires. Autocracies usually arose and for some time dominated quite successfully in societies where full-fledged legal institutions were not sufficiently developed. Other examples include the Nazi dictatorship of Germany A. Hitler, the Mussolini regime in Italy and the totalitarianism of the USSR.
The absolute monarchies of our time
In the modern world, autocracy is a form of government, for example, the UAE, the city-state of the Vatican (theological monarchy), Omar, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland and Brunei. Separate signs of autocracy, namely, government actions to preserve diversity under the current regime, are characterized by North Korea (unification and ideology), China (ideology), and the Philippines (suppression of society, the denial of universal values ββby some actions of the authorities).
Autocracy: Importance in Philosophy
Autocracy is not only a political regime based on the uncontrolled power of a single authorized person. Such a concept also exists in philosophy. Allocates him to Immanuel Kant. The philosopher calls autocracy the rule of a clear mind over negative inclinations. But still, much more often this term is used in the context of politics and the state.