Politcal Systems Of The World Essay Research

Politcal Systems Of The World Essay, Research Paper

All countries require leadership in some form. These governmental powers provide leadership, make decisions, and maintain order for that nation. How they come into power and enforce their control determines the type of government that is established. Throughout the world, there are five main forms of Government: Totalitarian, Authoritarian, Parliamentarian, Monarchy, and Unitary. All five of these are prevalent today and have different characteristics that distinguish them form one another.

Totalitarian societies involve total domination, limited neither by received laws or codes nor even the boundaries of governmental functions, since they obliterate the distinction between state and society . Totalitarian is limited only by the need large numbers of people in a state of constant activity controlled by the elite. (Understanding Politics) Two countries that practice this form of government are Cuba and Romania.

Cuba an island located in the Caribbean established their independence on January 1, 1959. Religions such as Protestantism, Judaism, and Santeria were prevalent until Castro s establishment of power, in which Catholicism was made the primary religion. Cuba s primary source of income is in the exportation of sugar and nickel, due to recent decline in earnings though, tourism has become a significant resource of income. On February 24, 1976, Castro abolished the office of Prime Minister and named himself the President of the Council of Ministries and President of the Council of the State. As President, Castro created a single party system, Partido Comunisto Cubano, to ensure reelection, and sanctioned powers of the PCC in the constitution. This insured his dictatorship of Cuba.

South Vietnam is another example of a communist regime. A very poor country, they have never fully recovered the devastating effects of war and the loss of financial backing of the old U.S.S.R. The leader s main goal of maintaining power continues to hurt their economic situation. The fear of outside influence and intervention slows progress and discourages outside investors. A highly diversified, country religious groups such as Buddhist, Catholic, Islam, and Protestant are very prevalent. Elections for the legislative house, who are voted for by the people, are held very five years and only members of the Communist Party of Vietnam and a select few of non-members, who rarely receive more than 8% of the vote, are allowed to run. The National Assembly though, votes on the Election of the President of Vietnam who must be a member of the CPV to ensure that no one outside the party ever gains power.

Authoritarian Governments are similar to the ideologies of a Totalitarian society except that their singular goal is power. Iraq, located in the Middle East, is one of the main oil distributors in the world. Recently due to over $100 billion lost in the war with Iran the United Nations made the oil-for-goods deal, which insured Iraq desperately needed supplies such as food and medicine in exchange for $200 billion worth of oil. Saddam Husayn, a member of the Central Party, was elected President in 1979. In the most recent election, he received 99% of the vote. He established complete control over the Republic of Iraq, by giving himself the power to elect 30 of the 250 seats of the legislative branch. He also created the Revolutionary Command Council in which he was self appointed Chairman.

Algeria is another form of an Authoritarian Society. They have the fifth largest reserve of natural gas in the world. Hydrocarbon supplies 57% of the government s revenue and virtually all of export earnings. In 1986 the collapse of oil prices lead the government to reform policies that lead to turmoil among the people and a revolution. In 1992, Algeria became a revolutionary Arab-Islamic socialist republic with the National Libertarian Front (FLN) as the only legal political power. (WorldRover) In 1994 the president, Liamine Zeroual of the new party was elected. After being elected, Liamine focused his efforts on the decentralization administration within the country. He divided each province into a municipality called a dayrat and appointed a provisional governor with an elected assistant to aid in the maintenance of order. A Supreme Court system was also established as both the highest appellate court and as the council of state.

A Unitary System of Government is a Democratic form of government in which the central government may choose to turn over many affairs to local government but is not required to do so. (WorldRover) Israel and Peru are two primary examples of the unitary form of Government. Israel s legal system primarily based on English Common Law and British Mandate regulations. They have no formal constitution but rely mainly on both the Declaration of Establishment and the Israeli citizenship law. Israel is a technologically advanced market economy that depends primarily on the imports of crude oil, grains, raw materials, and military equipment. The Israeli government is highly involved in the growth of the economy by encouraging the immigration of Jews from the former USSR within the past ten years, which brought both scientific and professional expertise to the country. Within the Israeli Government, there are several parties such as the Likud Party, party of the Prime Minister, National Religious Par