States and Governments
Form of State
Form of Government
Determining the forms of states allows the student of vexillolgy to understand the origin of political sovereignty. Sovereignty is the exclusive right to exercise political authority or power over a geographic region (countries), groups of people (nations), or even over just oneself. Such authority is generally recognized and accepted by other countries, nations, or people and is not disputed unless the sovereignty in question is seen to infringe upon another legitmate source of authority. (Such disputes usually lead to war.) In the case of countries and nations, the form of the state depends upon where soveriegnty rests (or where the authority to govern originates).
Absolute Monarchy: The sovereign powers of the government are exercized by a crowned prince who acts as the Chief of State (as the source of soveriegnty) and as the Head of Government (as the sole authority to exercize sovereignty). Since the subjects of the crown have no right to claim sovereignty, political parties are unnecessary (and often illegal).  If they are tolerated at all, political parties are heavily regulated.  Examples of absolute monarchies include Saudi Arabia and Brunei.
Parliamentary Democracy: The power to administer governments rests with the authority of an elected legislative assembly composed of members representing established political parties. Depending on local law, parliaments may be controlled by one party that received a majority of electoral votes - minority parties forming a legal opposition, or the top vote-getters in elections may form coalition governments. Regardless, the party (or parties) in control of the parliament form a government by electing Ministers of Government, including an executive officer (usually known as a Prime Minister), cabinet ministers, and judicial officers. The sovereignty of the state rests outside of the government in the office of the Head of State, usually an elected president with largely ceremonial powers.  Examples of parliamentary democracies include France, Russia, and Italy.
Theocracy:; The sovereignty of the state is understood to derive from a divine power (ie, God).  All laws are understood to be those ordained by the divine power; the purpose of the state is to give worship to the divine power; and the government is the temporal institution through which the divine power exercises influence in the world. Since divine powers are usually not visible in this world, the sovereign authority of the state is exercized by a priest or other religious icon. Examples of theocracies include Iran and Vatican City.
Presidential Democracy: The powers of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) are divided between three independent branches of the government with checks and balances encoded into law via a constitution. Such forms of government are called presidential democracies because members of the legislative assembly are popularly elected by the people to make laws which are, in turn, executed by a President or other elected officer whose authority is independent of the assembly. The judiciary is usually -but not always - not elected and is independent from the other branches.  Examples of presidential democracies include the United States, Mexico, and Brazil.
Monarchy: The soveriegnty of a monarchy is understood to rest in the office of a monarch (or in extreme cases in the person of the monarch himself) who has inherited his/her office by right of birth. The monarch is usually viewed as the personification of the state and serves as its Chief of State if not the Head of Government too. Citizens of the state are identified as "subjects" of the king's/queen's sovereignty. Depending on the form of government, the monarch may exercize all political power, or may be limited in the exercise of power through a constitution (in which case the exercise of power is administered in the monarch's name), or may only be a figurehead. (See Forms of Governments at right to determine the extent of the monarch's political power in individual cases.) Examples of monarchies include the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Japan.
Emerging Democracy: Emerging democracies are those with histories of autocratic or totalitarian regimes but which have adopted policies intended to reject such policies in favor of more democratic principle. However, the success of such policies are yet to be determined. Today,there are many emerging democracies, especially with the collapse of communism and the Iron Curtain in the 1990s.  Examples include Russia, Ukraine, Nicaragua.
Republic: In theory, the sovereignty of a republic is understood to ultimately rest with the people who are so governed. As such, the state is undertood to be a group of people who each have a personal, vested interest in the state's administration (ie, government). They have therefore voluntarily, but irrevocably, relinquished their right to exercize their personal authority to the state's government and have thus consented to be governed. The extent to which personal sovereignty has been relinquished to the government determines the extent of power the government exercizes over individuals. Examples of republics include the  United States, France, and Russia.
Totalitarian Dictatorships: The power to administer government in totalitarian regimes usually rests with a single person (a dictator), or by a small group of people who serve at the dictator's pleasure, all of whom belong to the sole political party authorized to govern. Totalitarian dictatorships seek to control all aspects of public and private human behavior by mobilizing all of society toward the common goals and policies of the govenment. In order to accomplish this goal, propaganda is disseminated through a state-run media, laws are enacted that make dissent from the government's policies illegal, a secret police force is established to enforce these laws, and surveillance systems are established to infiltrate illegal activity. Totalitarian regimes may govern with the support of a majority of the people, in which case they spend an inordinate amount of time and energy maintaining this support, or they may govern without much support at all, in which case they spend an inordinate amount of time suppressing dessent that may get out of hand.  Examples of totalitarian dictatorships include North Korea, Libya, and Syria.
Federated Republic: As in simple republics discussed above, sovereignty rests with the people who consent to be governed. The sovereignty that the people have relinquished in a federated republic, however, is understood to be shared between the central state government and several subnational units (that are technically known as provinces, but which may also be referred to as states, regions, departments, etc.) In federated republics, therefore, the subnational units are considered to be more than just administrative units of the central government, but have rights to exist and to govern that cannot be revoked by the central government. Examples of Federated Republics included the United States and Brazil.
Confederated Republic: Sovereignty of a confederated republic rests with several states that agree to confer authority to a central government for their mutual benefit. Usually, the central government of a confederation is not sovereign and exercizes political power only by authority given to it by the governments of the confederated states. The best example of such a confederation may be found in Switzerland.
Communism: The power to administer the government rests with a committee of the Communist Party. Utilizing Marxist and/or Leninist political and economic philosophy, the party (through the authority of the state which it controls) attempts to control all social and economic activity. All land is held, presumably in trust for the people, by the state. All economic activity conducted on that land is controlled and regulated by the government. Socially, a classless, egalitarian society is desired, though not always achieved.  Examples of communist governments include China, Mongolia, and Vietnam.
Anarchy: Theoretically, anarchy is the absence of delegated sovereignty from individuals to an organized government. Anarchy is, therefore, the absence of government. In an anarchistic society, all individuals are free to order their lives as they see fit, their freedom ending only where it infringes upon another's freedom to do the same. Anarchy is never a prefered order of a state because in reality, anarchy cannot exist in such a prestine state. Anarchy, at least as it has been experienced by humans in this world, leads ultimately to chaos. Anarchy, in practice therefore, is only experienced in the absence of a legitimate government. Examples of anarchist states are few and far between.  However, the closest example in today's world may be found in Somolia.
Determining the form of governments exercized by the different states of the world allows the student of vexillology to understand how states choose to exercize the sovereignty that they enjoy.  The forms of government often play an important part in determining the design of flags, since these governments desire to demonstrate in their flags how they govern.  The forms of their states (the source of sovereignty) and the forms of their governments (how sovereignty is exercized) is the source of legitimacy for the existence of every state.  This important source of legitmacy will very often be illustrated on their flags.
Constitutional Monarchy: Though sovereignty is still understood to originate in the office of the monarch, the power to exercize that sovereignty is specifically spelled out in a written constitution that is understood to be a contract between the monarch and his subjects.  By this constitution, the monarch delegates some (if not all) of his/her sovereignty to the people who then form a democratic government vested in a parliament.  Because of this, constitutional monarchies are sometimes called Parliamentary Monarchies as well. Regardless, the government's right to govern is said to be conducted in the monarch's name and at his/her pleasure.   Examples of constitutional monarchies include the United Kingdom, Japan,  and the Netherlands.
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This page was created on 31 May 2006 in Tupelo, Mississippi
Date of Last Revision: 17 January 2007 in Birmingham, Alabama