Forms of government
The forms of government "determine the systems of organization of the highest state authorities, the order of their formation, the terms of activity and competence, as well as the order of interaction of these bodies with each other and with the population, and the degree of participation of the population in their formation." This is one of the main characteristics of the state system, or the form of the state, along with the type of state structure and political regime.
The form of government is the structure of the highest state authorities, the order of their formation and the distribution of competence among them.
The form of government is traditionally considered as a part of the form of the state. In the theoretical and constitutional-legal literature of recent years, two main approaches have been identified regarding the form of the state. According to the first approach, the form of the state consists of the form of government, the form of the state structure and the political regime. Supporters of the second approach includes the form of government, the form of the state structure and the state regime in the form of the state, without identifying it with the political regime.
The form of government depends on many factors, among which are crucial:
- specific historical conditions of the emergence and development of this state;
- the level of culture and those traditions that have developed as a result of the historical development of the country;
- the territorial size of the country, and to a certain extent the geographical location;
- national composition of the population (the presence of several nations leads, as a rule, to the formation of federal statehood);
- the ratio of class forces, the social representation of persons in power in a given country and in a given historical period of time.
The form of government reveals three main characteristics of the state:
- the organization of the highest organs of the state, their structure, the order of education, the degree of participation of the population in their education;
- relations of the highest authorities with each other and with the population;
- the competence of these bodies.
The form of state government makes it possible to understand: how the highest organs of the state are created, and what their structure is; how the relationship between the highest and other state bodies is built; how the relationship between the supreme state power and the population of the country is built; to what extent the organization of the highest organs of the state allows ensuring the rights and freedoms of a citizen.
Let’s stop on some forms of government more thoroughly.
In the modern world, each state is distinguished by a set of specific features and characteristics that have developed in the process of its historical evolution, under the influence of natural factors, features of socio-economic development, religion, etc. However, from all the variety of modern state forms, two main forms of government can be distinguished – the monarchy and the republic.
