Political Systems of States

1. Political system is the set of formal legal institutions that

constitute a “government” or a “state”. More broadly defined, the

political system is seen as a set of “processes of interaction” or as

a subsystem of the social system interacting with other

nonpolitical subsystems, such as the economic system.

2. The most important type of political system in the modern

world is the nation-state. The world today is divided territorially

into more than 175 states, in each of which a national government

claims to exercise sovereignty and seeks to compel obedience to

its will by its citizens. The world’s political organization suggests

the distinction among supranational, national, and subnational

political systems.

3. Supranational relations is the result of the division of the

world into a number of separate national entities, or states, that

have contact with one another, share goals or needs, and face

common threats. In some cases, as in many alliances, these

relationships are short-lived. In other cases, they lead to interstate

organizations and supranational systems. Examples of

supranational political systems are:

4. Empires which are composed of peoples of different cultures

and ethnic backgrounds. They are characterized by the

centralization of power and the absence of effective representation

of their component parts. The history of the ancient world is the

history of great empires-Egypt, China, Persia, and imperial Rome

whose autocratic regimes provided relatively stable government for

many subject peoples in immense territories over many centuries.

5. Leagues are one of the commonest forms of supranational

organization in history. Leagues are composed of states seeking to

resist some common military or economic threat by combining

their forces. Common features of leagues include the existence of

some form of charter or agreement among the member states, an

executive organ, and an arbitral or judicial body for handling

disputes. The League of Nations was one of the great experiments

in supranational organization of the 20th century and the

predecessor in several important respects of the United Nations.

6. Confederations are voluntary associations of independent

states that agree to certain limitations on their freedom of action

and establish some joint machinery of consultation or deliberation.

Historically, confederations have often proved to be a first or

second step toward the establishment of a national state, usually as

a federal union. Thus, the federal union of modern Switzerland

was preceded by a confederation of the Swiss cantons; the federal

constitution of the United States is the successor of the Articles of

Confederation. In some other cases confederations have replaced

more centralized arrangements, as, for example, when empires

disintegrate and are replaced by voluntary associations of their

former colonies. The British Commonwealth, or Commonwealth

of Nations, and the French Community are cases of this type.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-16