Session 06: Government, Systems,
and Regimes
1-2 2 questions in classifying typologies
- Who rules?
- Who benefits from rule?
3. This scholar introduced the modern
system of checks and balances in the
government popularly known as separation
of powers
- Montesquieu
4. The three worlds typology is considered
the legacy of what war?
- Cold war
5. This scholar claims that the end of the
cold war, the triumph of the liberal
democratic political world system is the
end of history.
- Francis Fukuyama
6-10 Regime types in the modern world.
- Western polyarchies
- New democracies
- East asian regimes
- Islamic regimes
- Military regimes
11. How many waves of democratization
occured as per the theory of huntington?
- 3 waves of democratization
12-13 Lipjhart distinguished the two major
types of democracy. What are those?
- Majority and Consensus democracies
14-15. Give two possible circumstances for
military disease
- economic underdevelopment
- international support
- constitution is challenged
- the values of the military is different
from the broader society
GOVERNMENT vs REGIME
Government
- refers to the institutional processes
through which collective and usually
binding decisions are made
- refers to any mechanism through
which ordered rule is maintained
- central features: ability to make
collective decisions and the capacity
to enforce them.
- it refers to the agent of the state
- particular point in time (ex. Aquino
govt, Obama govt)
3 core functions:
 make law (legislation)
 implement law (execution)
 interpret law (adjudication)
Political System/ Regime
- is a broader term that encompasses
not only the mechanisms of a
government and the institutions of
the state, but also the structures and
processes through which these
interact with the larger society
- a subsystem of the larger social
system
'system': there are interrelationships within
a complex whole
'political': these interrelationships relate to
the distribution of power, wealth and
resources in the society
Political regimes: characterized
effectively by the organization of economic
life as they are by the governmental
processes through which they operate
- a 'system of rule' that endures
despite the fact that governments
come and go
- ex. Pagpapatalsik kay Marcos,
bumalik yung demokrasya sa
Pilipinas from Cory Aquino to the
present (diff govts that we consider
as one regime)
WHY DO WE CLASSIFY POLITICAL
REGIMES?
1. Classification is an essential aid to
the understanding of politics and
government.
 2. The purpose of classification is to
facilitate evaluation rather than
analysis.
- Decriptive understanding is
closely tied up with normative
judgments: questions about what
is are linked to questions about
what is? -> what should be?
DRAWBACKS
1. There is a danger of simplification.
- Overemphasis on similarities.
Underemphasis on differences.
- Different meanings in different
context or cultures.
2. Value biases tend to intrude into the
classification process.
3. Classification is necessarily state-
bound:
-Treating individual countries as
coherent or independent entities in
their own right.
CLASSICAL TYPOLOGIES
• Aristotle, 4th century BCE
• analyzed 158 Greek City states
2 Questions:
1. Who rules?
2. Who benefits from rule?
- Purpose was to evaluate forms of
government on normative grounds in the
hope of the ‘ideal’ constitution
- identify the ‘ideal’ form of government
One Few Many
Rul Tyranny Oligarch Democr
er y acy
All Monarc Aristocra Polity
hy cy
• Tyranny|Oligarchy|Democracy
- Perverted forms of government in
which a single person, a small group, and
the masses, governed in their OWN
interests at the EXPENSE of others
• Monarchy|Aristocracy|Polity-Right
- Preferred forms of government,
the individual, small group, and
the masses governed in the
interests of ALL
• Tyranny- worst of all possible
constitutions
- It reduced citizens to the status of
slaves
• Monarchy & Aristocracy- preferred
but ruler should be God-like
*Tutol siya sa pagbagsak ng monarchs
• Polity- lead by middle classes; perfect
rulers
- Rule by the many in the interests
of all
- Most practicable of constitutions
• Aristotle criticised POPULAR RULE on
the grounds that the masses would resent
the wealth of the few, and too easily fall
under the sway of a DEMAGOGUE.
• Aristotle advocated a ‘mixed
constitution’ that combined the elements
of both DEMOCRACY and ARISTOCRACY,
and left the govt in the hands of the
‘middle classes’ who were neither rich
nor poor (POLITY)
Aristotelian System was later developed
by thinkers such as Hobbes and Bodin.
The principle of sovereignty was their
particular reason.
- Basis for all stable political regimes
- Most ‘high and perpetual’ power that
alone could guarantee orderly rule
Bodin: Absolutism was the most
defensible of regimes, as it established a
sovereign who makes law but is not bound
by those laws.
The overriding merit of resting sovereignty
in a single individual was that it would then
be indivisible: sovereignty would be
expressed in a single voice that would
claim final authority.
- He argued that absolute monarchs
were constrained by the existence of
higher law in the form of the will of
God or natural law.
Hobbes: portrayed sovereignty as a
monopoly of coercive power, implying
that the sovereign was entirely
unconstrained (Leviathan)
*revised by early liberals: Locke and
Montesquieu- championed the cause of
constitutional government
Locke: argued that sovereignty resided
with the people, not the monarch
- Advocated a system of limited
government to povide protection
for natural rights; notably, the rights
to life, liberty, and property.
Montesquieu: proposed a system of
checks and balances in the form of a
‘separation of powers’ between the
executive, legislative, and judicial
institutions
 separation of powers- one of the
defining features of liberal
democratic government
THE THREE WORLDS TYPOLOGY
-had economic. Ideological, political, and
strategic diemonsions
 A capitalist ‘first world’
 A communist ‘second world’
 A developing ‘third world’
-shaped by the COLD WAR
ECONOMIC DIMENSION
First world: industrialized western
regimes, populations enjoying the highest
level of mass affluence
Second world: communist regime, also
largely industrialized, capable of satisfying
population’s basic needs
Third world: colonies, non-aligned who
were economically dependent and suffers
from widespread poverty
IDEOLOGICAL DIMENSION
First world: capitalist principles
(desirability of private enterprise, material
incentives, free market)
Second world: communist values (social
equality, collective endeavor and need for
centralized planning)
Third world: under the influence of either
first or second world
POLITICAL DIMENSION
First world: liberal democratic politics
based on a competitive struggle for power
at election time
Second world: one-party states, ‘ruling
people’s’ / communist parties, people’s
republic
Third world: typically authoritarian
(monarch, dictators, army)
Since the 1970, the systems of
classification has been increasingly difficult
to sustain.
- Economic development of Middle
East, East Asia, BRICS (Brazil,
Russia, India, China, South Africa),
Latin America
- Fourth world: Sub-Saharan
Africa
- Collapse of the USSR
- Democratization in Asia, Latin
America, and Africa
• Fukuyama: the end of history, triumph
of the capitalist first world
TINA- “There is no alternative” (Margaret
Thatcher-iron lady)
REGIME TYPES OF THE MODERN
WORLD
Western Polyarchies- liberal democracies
Huntington: produces of the first two
waves
 First wave: bet. 1828 & 1926 (USA,
France, UK)
 Second wave: bet. 1943 & 1962
(West Germany, Italy, Japan, and
India)
DAHL- polyarchy
[Huntington: 3 waves of
democratization]
WESTERN POLYARCHIES
Polyarchy instead of liberal democracy
1. Liberal democracy is treated as a
political ideal and invested with
normative implications.
 2. Use of a polyarchy acknowledges
that these regimes fall short on the
goal of democracy.
Two General Features Of Polyarchy
[Dahl and Lindbolm]
1. There is a relatively high tolerance of
opposition.
2. The opportunity in participating in
politics should be sufficiently
widespread to real ability.
In short: regular, consecutive,
competitive elections
Lijphart: majority democracies and
consensus democracies
Majority- organised along
parliamentary
- Westminister model (UK,
Australia, Canada, Israel, India)
Features of Majoritarian
tendencies:
 single-party government
 a fusion of powers between
the executive and the
assembly
 an assembly that is either
unicameral or weakly
bicameral
 a two-party system
 a single-member plurality, or
first-past-the-post, electoral
system
 unitary and centralized
government
 an uncodified constitution and
a sovereign assembly
Consensus- power-sharing
- Europe (France, Germany)
- Appropriate to societies that are
divided by deep religious,
ideological, regional, and others
Features of Consensual/Pluralistic
Tendencies:
 Coalition government
 A separation of powers between the
executive and the assembly
 An effectuve bicameral system
 A multiparty system
 Proportional representation
 Federalism or devolution
 A codified constitution and a bill of
rights
NEW DEMOCRACIES: PHILIPPINES
Huntington: 3rd wave of
democratization
- Dictatorship, military, collapse of
soviet communism
- The central features of the
process were the multiparty
elections and introduction of
market-based economic reforms
(transition countries)
DISTINCT FROM WESTERN
because:
1. Communist past can’t be
disregarded like Russia,
communist system endured over
70 years.
2. Process of transition has unleased
* and generated problems from
Western.
CHALLENGES TO POST-
COMMUNIST REGIMES:
1. Political-cultural consequence of
communist rule (Stalinist
totalitarianism)
2. Shock-therapy transitions
(IMF/WB) from central planning to
free market capitalism resulted to
unemployment, inflation, and
social inequality.
3. Weakness of state power when
faced by centrifugal force
suppressed during communist
era.
0.89%- rate of plitical dynasties sa US
75%-rate of political dynasties in PH
EAST ASIAN REGIMES
(Korea, Japan, Taiwan. Hong Kong)
- Rise of East Asia in the global
economy (19880s-present)
- Assumption: modernization
means westernization
- However, the interpretation fails
to take account of the degree to
which polyarchical institutions
operate in an Asian context from
the way they do in Western one
- Asian different from Western
- CHINA: “swim to the East leap to
the West”
EAST ASIAN REGIMES SIMILAR
CHARACTERISTICS:
1. Oriented more about economic
goals than political ones
2. Broad support for strong
government
3. Respect leaders because of
confucian stress on loyalty,
discipline, and duty
(authoritarian)
4. Emphasis on community and
social cohesion, embodied in the
central role accountable* to the
family
ISLAMIC REGIMES
- The rise of Islam as a political
force has had a pofound effect on
politics in North Africa, the Middle
East, and parts of Asia
- Saudi Arabia: Islamic state since
1932
- Iran: Islamic republic established
in 1979 after the Iranian
Revolution
- Led by Ayatollah Khomeini
56 Islamic states (2005)
- Islam is not, however, and never
has been, simply a religion.
Rather, it is a complete way of
life, defining correct moral,
political, and economic behavior
for individuals and nations alike.
- Political Islam which political and
other affairs are structured
according to “higher” religious
principles. Nevertheless, Islam
has assumed clearly contrasting
forms, ranging from
fundamentalist to pluralist
extremes.
- The fundamentalist version of
Islam is most commonly
associated with Iran.
- Until his death in 1989, Khomeini
* Tunisia and Libya
15 senior clerics
- Moslems, themselves, have been
rejected to the classification of
any Islamic regime as
“fundamentalist”, on the ground
that this perpetuates long
established Western prejudices
against an “exotic” or
“repressive” East.
- Evidence that Islam is
compatible with a form of
political pluralism can be found
in Malaysia
- Although a popularly elected
president and parliament have
been established, all legislation is
ratified by the Council for the
Protection of the Constitution,
which ensures conformity to
Islamic principles.
- Shari’a law continues to be
strictly enforced throughout Iran
as both a legal and moral code
- The forces of revolutionary
fundamentalism also asserted
themselves through the Taliban
regime in Afghanistan, which
was characterized by the
imposition of strict theocratic rule
and the exclusion of women from
education, the economy and
public life in general
Said (1978): Muslims, themselves ,
however, have often objected to the
classification of any Islamic regime as
‘fundamentalist’, on the grounds that this
perpetuates long-established western
prejudices against an ‘exotic’ or ‘repressive’
East, serving as examples of ‘orientism’
Although Islam is the official state religion
of Malaysia, with the Paramount ruler
serving as both religious leader and head of
state, a form of ‘guided’ democracy
operates as the dominance of the United
Malays National Organization (UMNO),
operating as a broad coalition, the Barisan
Nasional, and within a multiparty
framework
Turkey also offers an interesting example
of the relationship between Islam and
democracy, as does the Arab Spring and
developments in countries such as Egypt,
MILITARY REGIMES
- Survive through the exercise of
military power and systematic
repression
- Military regimes belong to a broader
category of dictatorship.
Military dictatorship: most common in
Latin America, Middle East, Africa,
Southeast Asia
Key feature: the leading posts in the
government are filled on the basis of the
person’s position within the military chain
of command
- Normal political and constitutional
arrangements are usually
suspended, and institutions
through which opposition can be
expressed, such as elected
assemblies and a free press, are
either weakened or abolished
FORMS OF MILITARY REGIME
In some military regimes, the armed forces
assume direct control of government – the
classical form of this is (1) military junta
(found in Latin America):
- This operates as a form of collective
military government centered on a
command council of officers who
usually represent the three armed
services: Army, Navy, Air Force
Junta regimes: characterized by rivalry
between the services and between leading
figures, the consequence being that formal
positions of power tend to change hands
relatively frequently
(2) Military-backed personalized
dictatorship
- a single individual gains pre-eminence
within the junta or regime, often being
bolstered by a cult of personality designed
to manufacture charismatic authority
Ex. Col. Papadopoulos, Gen. Pinochet, Gen.
Abacha
(3) the loyalty of the armed forces is
the decisive factor that upholds the
regime
- the military leaders content themselves
with ‘pulling the strings’ behind the scenes
Ex. Brazil
IN WHAT CIRCUMSTANCE DOES THE
MILITARY SEIZE POWER?
Military coups appear to be associate dwith
4 key sets of circumstances:
1. There is a clear link between the
incidence of military coups and
economic underdevelopment
2. The military is likely to intervene in
politics only when it senses that the
legitimacy of the existing institutions
and the ruling elite is challenged,
and when it calculates that its
intervention is going to be successful
3. Military intervention is associated
with the degree to which the values,
goals, and interests of the armed
forces differ from those of the broder
regime
- Occured in Nigeria, Indonesia,
Pakistan
4. The military’s decision to seize
power may also be affected by
international considerations