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Concept
Political system
Summary
In political science, a political system means the type of political organization that can be recognized, observed or otherwise declared by a state.
It defines the process for making official government decisions. It usually comprizes the governmental legal and economic system, social and cultural system, and other state and government specific systems. However, this is a very simplified view of a much more complex system of categories involving the questions of who should have authority and what the government influence on its people and economy should be.
The main types of political systems recognized are democracies,
totalitarian regimes and, sitting between these two, authoritarian regimes with a variety of hybrid regimes. Modern classification system also include monarchies as a standalone entity or as a hybrid system of the main three.
According to David Easton, "A political system can be designated as the interactions through which values are authoritatively allocated for a society".. Political system refers broadly to the process by which laws are made and public resources allocated in a society, and to the relationships among those involved in making these decisions.
The sociological interest in political systems is figuring out who holds power within the relationship between the government and its people and how the government’s power is used. According to Yale professor Juan José Linz there a three main types of political systems today: democracies,
totalitarian regimes and, sitting between these two, authoritarian regimes (with hybrid regimes). Another modern classification system includes monarchies as a standalone entity or as a hybrid system of the main three. Scholars generally refer to a dictatorship as either a form of authoritarianism or totalitarianism.
Social anthropologists generally recognize four kinds of political systems, two of which are uncentralized and two of which are centralized.
Uncentralized systems
Band society
Small family group, no larger than an extended family or clan; it has been defined as consisting of no more than 30 to 50 individuals.
Official source
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