The Types of Goverment According to Levels of Freedom

[Zhang Qi]

There are seven general types of government according to the freedom scale. Here the viewers get to select the type of government they like the most.

The freedom scale is below.

Anarchy->Kleptocracy->Democracy<-Authoritarianism<-Totalitarianism

The democracy sub-scale is below.

Liberal->Moderate<-Conservative

The types of government are listed below:

1.) Anarchy - a societal structure that exists without the rule of law. There are no governing institutions in this system and people are essentially free to do what they please.

2.) Kleptocracy - a form of government where the government officials are so lax in enforcing laws that illegalities become de facto legalities.

3.) Democracy - a form of government where the interests of the majority determine the rule of law.

3.A.) Liberal - a democratic system that maximizes freedom in all civil rights but sometimes to the point that freedom of expression causes other rights to be violated.

3.B.) Moderate - a democratic system that aims to balance freedom of expression with the assurance that no civil rights are violated. Certain forms of self expression may be prohibited for this reason.

3.C.) Conservative - a democratic system that internalizes the needs of the majority and allow its rules and regulations to be dictated entirely by majority decision. The standards for civil rights are dictated by the majority's interests and these rights are usually not violated. However, the needs of minority groups are ignored in favor of generalized rules that are forced onto all citizens of the state.

4.) Authoritarianism - a political system that places a greater deal of emphasis on the ruling body of the nation state and treats the nation as a collective whole. In this system, the rights of minority groups may be compromised if it interferes with the needs of the majority state. More civil rights are suspended as a result even if such suspension is not absolutely necessary. Additionally, every aspect of public life is strictly regulated by the rule of law and private institutions are kept to a minimum by the government.

5.) Totalitarianism - a political system that recognizes no limits to its authority over the citizens of the state. Every aspect of public and private life is controlled by the rule of law by a one party political, religious, corporate or other institution and there is a legally sanctioned police surveillance arm of the government that spies on the private activities of the nation's citizens to ensure a total conformity to predetermined lifestyles and rule of law. Institutions other than the single party government are prohibited by law.

The freedom ranking for the various systems are as follows:

1.) Anarchy - 100%

2.) Kleptocracy - 86%

3.) Liberal Democracy - 71%

4.) Moderate Democracy - 50%

5.) Conservative Democracy - 29%

6.) Authoritarianism - 14%

7.) Totalitarianism - 0%

Since there is no polling system on this site, please just place your choices in your posts.

[Iesous]

That's a pretty simplistic scale. I think you've left a lot of options out of the equation. Not to mention that I think that your ordering of the Democratic subgroup is backwards. I'm not actually Republican myself, but Republicans would see themselves as offering more freedom. Take the recent financial bailouts in America for example. Republicans want smaller government, especially related to business. We've had so many people screaming about how much control the current government is taking by basically buying into ownership of the companies (GM, Financial companies, etc.) that are struggling/failing. That doesn't equate to more freedom for those companies.

Universalized healthcare is another issue that is opposite to your scale. The more government involvement there is, the less freedom for the individual there is. I'm not making a claim as to which is right; I'm just bringing your freedom scale into it.

However, there are other issues that are indeed according to your scale. Pro-choice/Pro-life offers freedom to choose on one hand, and government control on the other. These examples demonstrate that your scale is way too simplistic. There's a whole slew of political systems that you're leaving out. And I think your percentages way off as well.

[Zhang Qi]

Yes you are right because this scale focuses narrowly and linearly on the level of freedom only but other aspects of a government are left out. The reason for this is because a linear scale cannot be made if all the different elements of government are taken into consideration. If all forms of government were to be considered, there would be no linear scale because the governmental systems cannot be directly polarized. I am merely asking what level of freedom you would prefer.

[Vextor]

Also, you don't want to confuse USA liberals and conservatives with it's meaning in political science. Liberals and conservatives in the USA change their stance on issues every few decades. Similar to how the "Liberal Democratic Party" in Japan is very conservative and almost authoritarian.

[Oppenheimer]

So where's socialism? Liberal Democracy?

[Zykerion]

A socialist system of government isn't particularly liberal democracy. However, it all depends on what you think of as being socialist. Socialism as we know it is merely the beginning stages towards true communism. However, it would probably be classified more as a statist government, or the beginnings of an authoritarian system, in which the government controls everything.

[Oppenheimer]

Speaking of which I guess communism isn't on that list either then?

[Iesous]

Forgive me for quoting myself...

That's a pretty simplistic scale. I think you've left a lot of options out of the equation.

I guess the author of the post may say that Communism fits in somewhere [authoritarian?] on the scale. But that's pretty problematic. Nazis and Communists of the mid-twentieth century hated each other, but they would fit in the same section.

[Vextor]

I believe that's due to the fact that this topic is about the "scale of freedom." Different governing ideologies place varying emphasis on the idea of "freedom," so two ideologies having similar ideas on freedom doesn't necessarily make both of those identical in all other aspects.

For example, the Nazi's and Stalinist communism ended up vastly reducing personal liberties, but in one hand under Nazi Germany people who were "German" had a huge degree of freedom. This is because Nazism was about the "German people reclaiming their rightful place in history." The Nazis hated the communists not really for ideological reasons. They didn't really disagree over "freedom" at all. Nazis disliked the communists because they thought the Jews were behind them-- the reason was basically political, not ideological.

Communism also has many different manifestations, but most people think of Stalin when they think of commuism. Stalin's communism is indeed authoritarian, but they also reject nationalism. Nazis were really focused on nationalism. So yes, both are authoritarian but they are different in many other ways.

[Iesous]

So yes, both are authoritarian but they are different in many other ways.

That's entirely my point. They both fit in the same sphere on this (too simple) spectrum, but you pointed out how different the level of freedom within the system of government was based on other factors, namely ethnicity.