Government

In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a means by which organizational policies are enforced, as well as a mechanism for determining policy. In many countries, the government has a kind of constitution, a statement of its governing principles and philosophy.

While all types of organizations have governance, the term government is often used more specifically to refer to the approximately 200 independent national governments and subsidiary organizations.

Historically prevalent forms of government include monarchy, aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, theocracy and tyranny. The main aspect of any philosophy of government is how political power is obtained, with the two main forms being electoral contest and hereditary succession.

The word government derives, ultimately, from the Greek verb κυβερνάω [kubernáo] (meaning to steer with gubernaculum (rudder), the metaphorical sense being attested in Plato's Ship of State).

The Columbia Encyclopedia defines government as "a system of social control under which the right to make laws, and the right to enforce them, is vested in a particular group in society".^[1]

While all types of organizations have governance, the word government is often used more specifically to refer to the approximately 200 independent national governments on Earth, as well as their subsidiary organizations.^[2]

World's states colored by form of government¹

Full presidential republics²	Semi-presidential republics²
Republics with an executive president elected by or nominated by the legislature that may or may not be subject to parliamentary confidence	Parliamentary republics²
Parliamentary constitutional monarchies	Parliamentary semi-constitutional monarchies which have a separate head of government but where royalty holds significant executive and/or legislative power
Absolute monarchies	One-party states
Countries where constitutional provisions for government have been suspended (e.g. military dictatorships)	Countries which do not fit any of the above systems (e.g. provisional governments/unclear political situations)

¹ This map was compiled according to the Wikipedia list of countries by system of government. See there for sources.
² Several states constitutionally deemed to be multiparty republics are broadly described by outsiders as authoritarian states. This map presents only the de jure form of government, and not the de facto degree of democracy.