On Political Systems of Different Countries:
POLITOLOGY Texts on key concepts and definitions using in politics
Texts for Modulus I:
(1) Politics is a very important part of the history and of the modern society. It is maybe even a inalienable, integral part of human life. Because of it Aristotle said, that man is a political animal. Of course, huge number of contemporary people rejects the importance of politics in the everyday life. But in fact everybody in the world interested in politics. The term ‘politics’ spread from Greek ‘politikos’, what means ‘of, for or relating to citizens’ or ‘civil, civic, belonging to the state’. “Politika” means ‘affairs of the cities’. Very often when we say on Power, we mean Politics. Politics is the process of making decisions applying to all members of each group. Politics refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance – organized control over a human community, in fact a state.
Modern political scientists Samuel Kernell and Steven Smith write: “Politics is an ever-present social activity. It occurs whenever individuals seek to reach agreement on a course of common action despite their disagreement over the goals. Politics arises whenever people who have different, even opposing, interests accept that they must cooperate if their interest is to be served. Politics, so defined, occurs within the smallest, most intimate associations as within families and among friends – as well as at city hall or in the parliament. Successful politics almost always depends on bargaining and compromise as each side tries to get as much of what it wants from the agreement, whether friends are trying to deside on a restaurant or Congress and the president are wrangling over the budget”. And they continue: “The major players in modern American politics – citizens, public officials, candidates for office, voters, parties, organized interests, and the media”.
(2) Politics have close ties with other fields of the social being, such as economy, law, morality, religion, arts, sport and so on. And in different cases politics influenced to other parts of society. Even we can say, that in common the everyday life of a millions people depends from the politics. Who will took power in the country, which of the parties wins the election, what decision will be accepted by the government and huge number of other political problems is very important for everybody in the country. Modern politics in the world develops toward the democracy, and political history shows, that democracy is a best way for solution the problems, it is the best way of politics. In every country different political forces take part in the struggle for power. The best way for all of them, for each of them in this political fighting is the way of democracy, democratic way. If there is no democratic way and the door is closed, it usually generate in society the discontent, the situation step by step will sharpen and the danger of civil war can to appear.
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(3) Famous philosophers of ancient Greece such as Plato and Aristotle express many interesting ideas on politics. By the Plato (427 – 347 B.C.), for example, a State must be above individual interests and above society, it must be as dominant force at hole. Property must be common, not private. Not just material property, but even every woman and every child must be common for all adult men. By his opinion, in the ideal state ruling social group consists just from philosophers. In common we can conclude, that Plato’s views are close to the ideas of communism. However, Plato’s political vision differs from a totalitarian state in some aspects. He believed, that a political order based on fairness leads to friendship and cooperation among different parts of the city. The best political order for Plato is that which promotes social peace in the environment of cooperation and friendship among different social groups, each benefiting from and each adding to the common good. The best form of government is a philosophical aristocracy or monarchy. His main works on political philosophy are “Republic” and “Laws”.
(4) Another great thinker of the humanity was Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.), who is a father-founder of Political Science. He is the author of many famous works, and main of them is for us, indeed, the “Politics”. He gives up for the humanity many very important political ideas, among them:
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· Man is a political animal;
· Politics (i.e. Political Science or Politology) is a queen of the sciences;
· Purpose of the state is good life;
· Idea of ‘middle’, ‘middle position’, “juste milieu”, ‘golden center’; power must belong to the ‘middle class’, not just for rich men and not just for pour men;
· Property must be private, not public, not common; just in this case result will be effective;
· There are three types of correct government (i.e. monarchy, aristocracy and polity) and three types of wrong ruling (tyranny, oligarchy and democracy); and so on.
(5)Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 – 1527), one of the founders of modern political science. He wrote his famous work “The Prince” in 1513. “Machiavellianism” is a widely used negative term to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described most famously in “The Prince”. Machiavelli described immoral behavior, such as dishonesty and killing innocents, as being normal and effective in politics. The term “Machiavellian” is often associated with political deceit, deviousness, and realpolitik. On the other hand, many commentators have argued that Machiavelli was actually a republican and his writings were an inspiration to Enlightenment proponents of modern democratic political philosophy.
(6)Modern Political Science (or Politology) is a young science. Independent Political Science appeared at first at the Columbian University of New York, US, in 1880, when the Department of Political Science was open. Before the World War I there opened in the United States more than forty departments of political science. Political science spread very quickly in the USA. Another situation was in the other parts of the world. In Europe, Canada and other countries political science developed very slowly. At the communist USSR, in Nazi Germany such as in many other countries political science was under oppression. Just since 1960s political science start to develop headily in Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, India and several other countries. In the former communist East European countries political science start to develop just in last two decades. However in the so-called former Soviet republics political science, because of some reasons, have no visible achievements even nowadays.
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Texts for modulus II:
(7)Politics is very complicated field of social life, and politics have its own structure. Politics includes many things, but some of them are more important for our understanding. By the political scientists, these important parts in the StructureofPoliticsare: a) Political Institutions; b) Political Culture; c) Political Process. Basic Political Institutions of a society include a state, political parties, elections etc. Political Culture consists from political psychology and political ideologies. The Political Process consists from different political events and from changes of the political processes, including modifications of political system. And when we will discuss Political Institutions, we’ll say on the state, parties and elections; when we’ll have a talking about Political Culture, we will discuss mainly on modern political ideologies (such as liberalism, conservatism, socialism and so on); and when we’ll discuss a Political Process, we’ll talk mainly on modern political systems.
(8) State is the main political institution. But many political scientists give it different definitions. Oxford English Dictionary, for example, defines “state” as “an organized political community under one government” and as a “nation”. The word ‘state’ (or stato, estado, etat, Staat) ultimately derive from Latin word status, meaning “condition” or “status”. Modern state (or government) not concentrated the power in one hand or on one institution, but separated the power on three main branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. Modern states have also two different structures: there are in the world huge number of unitary states (such as France, Japan, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Turkey, Kazakhstan and others) and many federal states (such as USA, India, Germany, Russia, Australia, Canada, Brasil, Mexico and others). A unitary state keeps all power under the control of the central government, while federal state splits power between central authorities and regional governments. There are also different forms of the State. There are in the world huge number of republics (for example, USA or France, Germany or Romania, China or Russia, Iran or Turkey, India or South Africa etc) and many monarchies (such as Spain or UK, Japan or Canada, Sweden or Jordan, Netherlands or Saudi Arabia and so on). The difference between monarchy and republic is that monarchy is a government with a hereditary head of state, while republic is a state where sovereignty rests with the people or their representatives, rather than with a monarch or emperor; republic is a country with no monarchy. There are in the word two basic types of monarchy: 1) limited, constitutional or parliamentary monarchy (i.e. modern, democratic monarchy, such as Britain or Spain, Japan or Sweden, Canada or Norway etc); 2) unlimited, absolute monarchy (for example, Morocco or Brunei, Jordan or Oman, Saudi Arabia or Kuwait and others). There are also two main types of the Republic: 1) parliamentary republic (for example, Germany or Israel, Italy or India, Hungary or Latvia and others); 2) presidential republic (such as USA or Finland, France or Russia, Brazil or South Korea, Mexico or Kazakhstan etc). Main difference between them is: the first political leader of the country in parliamentary republic is the head of the government (mainly called a prime-minister), but such leader in a presidential republic is the president. Because of it we can see, for example, on the summits (such as ‘G7’ or ‘G20’ and others) prime-ministers and presidents, even sometimes the kings. Every state have its own official name (for example, Federal Republic of Germany, French Republic, Japan, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland etc). Famous organs of the State are: Parliament, Head of State, Government. Each of them haves its own name in the respective country.
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(9) Among the basic political institutions there are political partiestoo. Political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. They agree on some policies and programs for the society with a view to promote the collective good or to further their supporters’ interests. In democracies, political parties are elected by the electorate to run a government. When we have free political parties, we have no civil wars. And contrary when we have no political parties, we have dissatisfaction in the society, disorders, riots, revolutions, and civil wars. The basic types of modern political parties are: centre parties (it is mainly liberal, democratic or ‘green’ parties), moderate right-wing parties (conservative, republican, peoples’ and Christian-democratic parties), moderate left-wing parties (socialist, social-democratic, labor or workers’ parties). Sometimes we can meet several other types of parties: extreme right-wing parties (fascist, nazist, right-populist, etc) and extreme left-wing parties (communist, post-communist, left-populist and others). There are in modern societies different party systems: one-party system, one-and-a-half party system, two-party system, multi-party system. In stable democracies there are always multi-party systems or two-party systems.
(10)Elections are very important political institution in democracy. Through the election is formed the political will of the citizens, political will of the nation. And first of all democratic election must be free and fair. If it is not free or not fair, there is no democratic election. In modern democratic countries are formed twomain types of parliamentary election: majority system and proportional system. Peculiarities of majority system are: there are in the country many single-ballot constituencies and from each constituency will be elected just one member of the parliament. The winner must receive more votes than each of others. It is a simple majority system. When the winner must receive more than 50% of total votes, we have a complicated majority system with two rounds of ballots (in France, for example). Peculiarities of proportional system are: there is usually just single national constituency, where take part not candidates but big and famous national parties. Every citizen gives his voice for his own prefer party. And finally election commission distributes the seats of representatives between the parties proportionally to received voices. There may be sometimes some specifications, for example, 5% threshold and others. There are many countries in the world with the mixed system of election, when one part of parliamentary seats elected by majority system and another part of seats is distribute between parliamentary parties by proportional system (Germany, Japan, Russia, Hungary and others). In last years big importance have such form of democratic election what named ‘primaries’ (for example, in the US, France and other countries).
Texts for modulus III:
(11) There are in modern world huge number of political ideologies. Some of them play important role in the process of citizens’ political decisions (for example, during the elections), but many others are not so influential. However the situation is not same in different countries. There are in stable democracies very influential ideologies like liberalism, conservatism and socialism.Each of them have millions followers throughout the world. And we can see even in western democratic countries thousands supporters of nationalism or communism and other political ideologies. First of all we must know what means the term ‘ideology’, and then what differences are between modern political ideologies? That is very important for us. The term ‘ideology’ appeared in France during the Revolution time at the end of XVIII th century. It means at that time the new science on human consciousness. The author of the new science was Antoine Destutt de Tracy. However, in several years the meaning of the term changed under the influence of Napoleon. And new meaning became that ‘ideology’ is not serious science which have fundamental bases. Soon in Europe appeared ‘scientific socialism’ of Marx and Engels, after them ‘scientific communism’ in Russia. They are consider, that just their ideology is base on science, but all other ideologies are not scientific. And now people are believe in the world, that some principles of each ideology may be truthful, but others may not. This is the situation with ideology now.
(12) The term “liberalism” spread from Latin ‘liber’, which means “free”. Liberalism is a political ideology founded on ideas of liberty. Liberals support ideas freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, free markets, civil rights, democratic societies, secular governments, gender equality and international cooperation.Liberals believe on science and progress. They defend also such principles like human rights,political liberties, supremacy of law, and other fundamental democratic values. Such beliefs are more important than other values for them. Liberal ideas came in new times with first steps of democracy. However its bases can be finds on the political ideas of Aristotle (384-322, BC). Liberal ideas broadly spread at new times firstly in Europe and North America and then in other parts of the world. In the prosperity of liberal values took part such political thinkers as John Locke (1632-1704) and John Stuart Mill(1806-1873) in Britain, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and other Founding Fathers of USA, French thinkers Charles-Louis de Montesquieu(1689-1755),Voltaire (1694-1778), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Benjamin Constant (1767-1830), Alexis de Tocqueville(1805-1859), German thinkers Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), MaxWeber (1864-1920) and many other political philosophersof the past. Among the great modern liberals we can indicate Jose Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955), Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992), Raymond Aron (1905-1983), Karl Popper (1902- 1994), John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006), Milton Friedman (1912-2006) and others. A term ‘democracy’ means first of all ‘liberal democracy’. At first period of rising liberal values, liberals fight against reactionary conservatives and revolutionary socialists (who became communists). However in XX century, especially after WWII conservatives and socialists accept finally many fundamental principles of liberal democracy. And now we have in political scene of all western democracies side by side liberal democrats, social democrats and conservative democrats.
(13) The term “conservatism” spread from Latin ‘conservare’, which means ‘conserve’. Conservatism as a political and social philosophy promotes retaining traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. It is a political philosophy advocating the preservation of the best of the established order in society and opposing radical change. Conservatism prefers the existing order of society and opposes efforts to bring about sharp changes. Conservatives themselves reject any ideology and say that they don’t have a political ideology. They stay on the position of ‘common sense’. But in fact they have some priorities and values such as: religious beliefs, family values, respect on history, traditions and customs, spiritual and sacred values and so on. Some of the conservative values were expressed during ancient world, for example, by Confucius (551-479, BC). Later conservative principles were defended by John Locke (1632-1704), Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), and at our times by Milton Friedman (1912-2006). Modern conservatism accepts democratic values in politics, but it fights ideologically and politically against socialists and liberals, for example, during national electoral campaign.
(14)Democratic socialism is a political ideology based on involvement to constitutional rule and the protection of basic rights in politics and on involvement to equitable distribution of the community’s wealth in economy. It may defined as having a socialist economy in which the means of production are socially and collectively owned or controlled alongside a politically democratic system of government. Democratic socialism combines democracy and socialism. Politically, it involves a commitment to democratic principles of governmental system and the protection of basic human rights. Economically, socialists want more justice in the distribution of national income. Some socialist ideas have roots even in the Plato’s “Republic”, however their main ideas developed by such socialists as Robert Owen (1771-1858), Charles Fourier (1772-1837), Henry de Saint-Simon (1760-1825) and others. Marxian version of socialism developed on the second half of XIX th century by Karl Marx (1818-1883) and his friend Friedrich Engels (1820-1895). After that in Russia appeared Leninist version of Marxism (approximately since the beginning of XX th century), or communism by Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924). And it was yet another than socialism political ideology, which fully rejected democratic values. XX th century’s democratic socialism was strongly defended by many socialist politicians and thinkers, including GeorgeOrwell (1903-1950) and Bertrand Russell (1872-1970). And finally there is very interesting political phenomenon in the XXI th century’s USA (where socialism always was unpopular), concerned with socialist ideas of Bernie Sanders (born in 1941), who call themselves “democratic socialist” and receive millions of supporters during Democratic primaries in 2016.
Texts for modulus IV:
(15) By the opinion of modern political scientists, political system of every country, in broad sense, belongs under democracy or dictatorship. Many modern countries have a democratic political system, but many others are dictatorships. Indeed, latest also want to be called as democracies, however in fact they are politically the modern dictatorships. According to the views of the politologists, political system of democracy have just one kind, and it is the liberal democracy (first of all, West European and North American countries). Dozen countries in other parts of the world (in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa) try to construct liberal democratic system in their countries during last decades. There are no any other kinds of democracy. But modern dictatorships have several different kinds, including totalitarian dictatorship (for example, twentieth century Communist dictatorship under Lenin and Stalin, Fascist dictatorship under Benito Mussolini, Nazi dictatorship under Hitler, even nowadays North Korean regime), authoritarian dictatorship (such as nowadays Cuba, China, Syria, several post-Soviet countries and others), military dictatorship or stratocracy (it was at the second half of twentieth century in many Latin American, African and Asian countries, even in Greece for short period), religious dictatorship or moderntheocracy (for example, in modern Iran), and living even now absolute monarchies (such as Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan, Brunei and others) etc. As we can see, all varieties of dictatorial systems are opposed to liberal democracy, they reject democratic principles, and because of it they are antidemocratic systems.
(16) As political scientists and historians pointed out the first information on Modern Democracy came to Europe step by step since the beginning of XIX th century. Just couple of decades before that, at the end of XVIII th century, first roots of liberal democracy were appeared on the land of young new nation, i.e. American. However, according the views of political scientists, who were celebrated the 2500 years anniversary of Democracy at the end of XX th century, democracy is not so young, it born in Ancient Greece at the times of Pericles, i.e. in V th century BC. But we talk on Modern Democracy, which came to Western countries just two hundred years ago and even now stay as dream for more than a half of the people throughout the world. Political scientists define a democracy as a government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. Or by the words of Abraham Lincoln, democracy is ‘the government of the people, by the people, and for the people’. And many of them indicate several (since three-four to fourteen) basic principles of liberal democracy. For example, H.B. Mayo pointed out next four main principles of democracy: 1) social control over them, who make politics; 2) political equality (first of all in the elections); 3) maintenance of effectiveness of the social control (before all the maintenance of political freedoms); 4) decision making process under the rule of majority. M.O. Dickerson and Th. Flanagan in their common book indicate other four main democratic principles: 1) equality of political rights; 2) rule of the majority; 3) political participation; 4) political freedoms. They also named 8 features of totalitarian dictatorship: 1) attempt to remake the society; 2) one-party state; 3) all-powered leader; 4) pseudo-democratic rule; 5) control over the means of communication; 6) using of the terror; 7) submission of the law to the state; 8) planned economy. Some authors, including K.W. Deutsch or B.K. Gokhale, in their different books indicate fourteen not same principlesof democratic system.
On Political Systems of Different Countries:
Germany – federative parliamentary republic. There are in Lower House of Parliament 630 representatives elected by mixed system (in last election 630=299+331). Two main political parties are Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. Political leader of the country is Chancellor Angela Merkel.
France – unitary presidential republic with complicated majority election system. There are in Lower House of Parliament 577 representatives. Two main political parties are Socialists and Republicans. Political leader of the country is President Francois Hollande.
Britain – unitary parliamentary monarchy with simple majority election system. There are in Lower House of Parliament 650 representatives. Two main political parties are Conservatives and Labor. Political leader of the country is Prime Minister Theresa May.
Canada – federative parliamentary monarchy with simple majority election system.There are in Lower House of Parliament 338 representatives. Two main political parties are Conservatives and Liberals. Political leader of the country is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Australia – federative parliamentary monarchy with simple majority election system. There are in Lower House of Parliament 150 representatives. Two main political parties are Liberals/Nationals and Labor. Political leader of the country is Prime Minister Malcolm Tumbull.
USA – federative presidential republic with simple majority election system. There are in Lower House of Parliament 435 representatives. Two main political parties are Republicans and Democrats. Political leader of the country is President Barack Obama.
Sweden – unitary parliamentary monarchy with proportional election system. There are in Parliament 349 representatives. Largest political party is SocialDemocrats.
Spain – unitary parliamentary monarchy with proportional election system. There are in Lower House of Parliament 350 representatives. Two main political parties are Peoples’ Party and Socialists. Political leader of the country is Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Japan - unitary parliamentary monarchy with mixed election system. There are in Lower House of Parliament 480 representatives. Two main political parties are Liberal Democrats and Democrats. Political leader of the country is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
India – is federative parliamentary republic. There are in Lower House of Parliament 545 representatives. Two main political parties are BharatiyaJanata Party and Indian National Congress. Political leader of the country is Prime Minister NarendraModi.
Turkey – is unitary presidential republic with proportional electoral system. There are in Parliament 550 representatives. The ruling party is AKParty (Party of Justice and Development). Political leader of the country is President RecepTayyipErdogan.
Brazil– is a federative presidential republic. There are in Lower House of Parliament 513 representatives elected by proportional system.
Mexico - is a federative presidential republic. There are in Lower House of Parliament 500 representatives elected by mixed system (500=300+200).
Georgia – unitary republic having parliament with 150 representatives, which elected by mixed electoral system. Two main parties are “Georgian Dream” and “United National Movement”.
Lithuania – is unitary republic. There are in Parliament 141 representatives elected by mixed electoral system (70 by proportional system and 71 by complicated majority system).
Russia – is a federative presidential republic with mixed electoral system (450=225+225). The ruling party is “United Russia” and political leader of the country is President Vladimir Putin.
Kazakhstan – is a unitary presidential republic with in fact proportional electoral system. There are in Lower House of Parliament (Majilis) 107 representatives, and political leader of the country is the President NursultanNazarbayev.
SUPPLEMENT I. Official names of the countries:
| Unofficial name | Official name of the country | |
| 1 | USA | United States of America |
| 2 | Mexico | United Mexican States |
| 3 | Australia | Commonwealth of Australia |
| 4 | Britain | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
| 5 | Germany | Federal Republic of Germany |
| 6 | Brazil | Federal Republic of Brazil |
| 7 | Malaysia | Federation of Malaysia |
| 8 | Russia | Russian Federation |
| 9 | Sweden | Kingdom of Sweden |
| 10 | Spain | Kingdom of Spain |
| 11 | France | French Republic |
| 12 | Italy | Italian Republic |
| 13 | Kyrgyzstan | Kyrgyz Republic |
| 14 | Argentina | Argentine Republic |
| 15 | Finland | Republic of Finland |
| 16 | India | Republic of India |
| 17 | Indonesia | Republic of Indonesia |
| 18 | Chile | Republic of Chile |
| 19 | Poland | Republic of Poland |
| 20 | Latvia | Republic of Latvia |
| 21 | Estonia | Republic of Estonia |
| 22 | Lithuania | Republic of Lithuania |
| 23 | Georgia | Republic of Georgia |
| 24 | Moldova | Republic of Moldova |
| 25 | Turkey | Republic of Turkey |
| 26 | Kazakhstan | Republic of Kazakhstan |
| 27 | Uzbekistan | Republic of Uzbekistan |
| 28 | South Korea | Republic of Korea |
| 29 | South Africa | Republic of South Africa |
| 30 | Canada | Canada |
| 31 | Japan | Japan |
| 32 | Hungary | Hungary |
| 33 | Ukraine | Ukraine |
| 34 | Mongolia | Mongolia |
| 35 | Turkmenistan | Turkmenistan |
SUPPLEMENT II.POLITICAL VOCABULARY:
Systems of government – parliamentary system and presidential system. Forms of government – monarchy and republic. Forms of state – unitary state and federative state.Election systems – majority system, proportional system, and mixed systems. Main party systems in democracy – two party system and multi party system.
Republic – [Greek word ‘politeia’ = “form of government, polity” was translated to Latin as ‘res publica’] - a form of government in which power resides in elected individuals representing the citizen body and government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law. Or: a system of government which derives its power from the people rather than from another basis. Monarchy - a form of government in which a group, usually a family called dynasty, embodies the country's national identity and one of its members, called monarch, exercises a role of sovereignty.Unitary state - a state, which keeps all power under the control of the central government.Federation - a group of states with a central government but independence in internal affairs.Parliamentary system - a system of democratic governance of a state where the executive branch derives its democratic legitimacy from the legislature and is also held accountable to that legislature.Presidential system - a system of government where a head of government is also head of state and leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch.
Democracy - a government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. By the words of Abraham Lincoln, it is the government ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people’. Dictatorship - a government in which one person or a small group possesses absolute power without effective constitutional limitations.Totalitarianism - a government that permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of the individuals’ life to the authority of the government.Authoritarianism - a government which marked by a strong central power and limited political freedoms; it is a government, which can or cannot lean on broad social support, but never expose itself to test by free election.
Politics - the process of making decisions applying to all members of each group.State - an organized political community under one government.Party - a group of citizens, who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government.Opposition - a political party or group opposed to the ruling party or government.Leader - a person who holds a dominant or superior position within its field, and is able to exercise a high degree of control or influence over others.Tolerance - a willingness to accept behavior and beliefs that are different from your own, although you might not agree with or approve of them.
Machiavellianism - the term usually associated with political deceit, deviousness, immoral behavior, unscrupulous policy, dishonesty,even killing innocents.
Liberalism - political philosophy founded on ideas of liberty and equality; it supports ideas freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, free markets, civil rights, democratic societies, and international cooperation.Conservatism - political philosophy advocating the preservation of the best of the established order in society and opposing radical change. Democratic socialism - political ideology based on involvement to constitutional rule and the protection of basic rights in politics and on involvement to equitable distribution of the community's wealth in economics. Nationalism - ideology based on the premise that the individual's loyalty and devotion to the nation-state surpass other individual or group interests. Communism - political ideology based on the establishing of a socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money,and the state.
Extremism - an ideology that is considered to be far outside the mainstream attitudes of society, or the fact of someone having beliefs that most people think are unreasonable and unacceptable. Terrorism - the use of intentionally indiscriminate violence in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological aim.
Autocracy – [from Greek ‘autos’=”self, one’s own,by oneself, same” + ‘kratos’=”power, rule, dominion”] a government in which one person (self-appointed leader = autocrat) has uncontrolled or unlimited authority over others.Or: It is a system of government in which supreme power is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control. Tyranny - a government in which a single leader or party exercises absolute control over all citizens and every aspect of their lives.Despotism - a form of government in which a single person rules with absolute power.
Corruption - a form of dishonest or unethical conduct by a person entrusted with a position of authority, often to acquire personal benefit.Demagogy - the art and practice of gaining power and popularity arousing the emotions, passions, and prejudices of the people.Bureaucracy – [from French word ‘bureau’=”desk” + Greek ‘kratos’=”power, rule, dominion”] - a body of non-elective government officials and/or an administrative policy-making group. Or: a system for controlling or managing a country, company, or organization that is operated by a large number of non-elected officials. Oligarchy – [from Greek ‘oligos’=“few” + ‘arkho’=”to rule or to command”] a government by the few, especially despotic power exercised by a small and privileged group for corrupt or selfish purposes. Aristocracy - [from Greek ‘aristos’=”best” + ‘kratos’=”power, rule, dominion”] formally a rule of the best, but in fact a government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class. Meritocracy - [combination of ‘merit’=”goodness worthy of praise or reward” + ‘kratos’=”power, rule, dominion”] a society governed by the people selected according to their abilities and talents, i.e. to their merit. Kleptocracy – [from Greek ‘kleptes’=”thief” + ‘kratos’=”power, rule, dominion”] the ruling of possibly anykindofgovernmentthatusesitspowertostealfromitspeople. Plutocracy – [from Greek ‘ploutos’=“wealth” + ‘kratos’=“power, rule, dominion”] a society controlled by the small minority of the wealthiest citizens.
Populism – is a political strategy based on a calculated appeal to the interests or prejudices of ordinary people. Or: a political ideology that holds that virtuous citizens are mistreated by a small circle of elites, who can be overthrown if the people recognize the danger and work together. Pacifism - the belief that war and violence are unjustifiable and all disputes should be settled by peaceful means.Nepotism - the favoring of relatives or personal friends because of their relationship rather than because of their abilities.
Xenophobia – [from Greek ‘xenos’ = “foreigner, strange” + ‘phobos’ = “fear”] is dislikeof peoplefromothercountriesorprejudiceagainstforeigners ordeep-rooted fear towards foreigners. By other words, it is ‘hatred or fear of foreigners or strangers or of their politics or culture’.
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