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List of countries by system of government

 

 
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 Stateless society
Stateless society

Stateless society describes a society without a government. It is generally the goal of anarchists who believe that government is both unnecessary and also directly harmful in that it infringes on the personal freedom and economic freedoms of people....

 

List of countries by system of government
 
 
  Topics List of countries by system of government Topic Home

This is a list of countries categorized by system of government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
.
le class="wikitable sortable" cellpadding="3">		NameConstitutional formHead of stateBasis of executive legitimacy
Notes on color-code

Note that several states constitutionally deemed to be multiparty republics are broadly described by outsiders as authoritarian states.






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This is a list of countries categorized by system of government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
.

Alphabetical list of countries

Stateless society
Stateless society

Stateless society describes a society without a government. It is generally the goal of anarchists who believe that government is both unnecessary and also directly harmful in that it infringes on the personal freedom and economic freedoms of people....
NameConstitutional formHead of stateBasis of executive legitimacy
Notes on color-code
  • orange - parliamentary republic
    Parliamentary republic

    A parliamentary republic or parliamentary constitutional republic is a form of a republic which operates under a parliamentary system of government ....
    s
  • green - presidential republics, executive presidency
    Presidential system

    A presidential system is a system of government where an executive branch exists and presides separately from the legislature, to which it is not wikt:accountable and which cannot, in normal circumstances, wikt:dismiss it....
     linked to a parliament
    Parliamentary system

    Parliamentary systems are characterized by no clear-cut separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches, leading to a different set of checks and balances compared to those found in presidential systems....
  • yellow - presidential republics, semi-presidential system
    Semi-presidential system

    The semi-presidential system is a system of government in which a Prime Minister and a president are both active participants in the day-to-day administration of the state....
  • blue - presidential republics, full presidential system
    Presidential system

    A presidential system is a system of government where an executive branch exists and presides separately from the legislature, to which it is not wikt:accountable and which cannot, in normal circumstances, wikt:dismiss it....
  • red - parliamentary
    Parliamentary system

    Parliamentary systems are characterized by no clear-cut separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches, leading to a different set of checks and balances compared to those found in presidential systems....
     constitutional monarchies
    Constitutional monarchy

    A constitutional monarchy is a form of constitutional government, where in either an elected or hereditary monarch is the head of state, unlike in an absolute monarchy, wherein the king or the queen is the sole source of political power, as he or she is not legally bound by the constitution....
     in which the monarch does not personally exercise power
  • magenta - constitutional monarchies
    Constitutional monarchy

    A constitutional monarchy is a form of constitutional government, where in either an elected or hereditary monarch is the head of state, unlike in an absolute monarchy, wherein the king or the queen is the sole source of political power, as he or she is not legally bound by the constitution....
     in which the monarch personally exercises power, often (but not always) alongside a weak parliament
  • purple - absolute monarchies
    Absolute monarchy

    Absolute monarchy is a monarchy form of government where the king or queen has absolute power over all aspects of his/her subjects' lives. Although some religious authorities may be able to discourage the monarch from some acts and the sovereign is expected to act according to custom, in an absolute monarchy there is no constitution or legal...
  • brown - republics where the dominant role of a single party
    Single-party state

    A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election....
     is codified in the constitution
  • beige - states where constitutional provisions for government have been suspended
  • grey - countries which do not fit any of the above systems


Note that several states constitutionally deemed to be multiparty republics are broadly described by outsiders as authoritarian states. This chart aims to represent de jure form of government, not de facto degree of democracy. Those more interested in a version reflecting such judgments may be interested in seeing the map below from Freedom House
Freedom House

Freedom House is a United States-based international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, Freedom and human rights....
.
Form of Government With Freedom House
.

Systems of Governance


Presidential/Separated republics

These are systems in which a president
President

President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, company, trade unions, university, and country. Etymology, a "president" is one who Wiktionary:Preside, who sits in leadership ....
 is the active head of the executive branch of government and is elected and remains in office independently of the legislature
Legislature

Legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to create and change laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law....
. The following list includes democratic and non-democratic states:

Full presidential systems
In full presidential systems, the president is both head of state and head of government. There is generally no prime minister, although if one exists he or she serves purely at the pleasure of the president. One country have at least vice-president that have an active role in the Government USA.

Presidential systems with a prime minister
  • Cameroon
    Cameroon

    The Republic of Cameroon is a unitary state of central and western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south....
  • Central African Republic
    Central African Republic

    The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the east, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west....
  • Chad
    Chad

    Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west....
  • Republic of the Congo
    Republic of the Congo

    The Republic of the Congo , also known as Congo-Brazzaville or the Congo, is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda , and the Gulf of Guinea....
     (Congo-Brazzaville)
  • Côte d'Ivoire
    Côte d'Ivoire

    , formerly Ivory Coast, officially the , is a country in West Africa. The government officially discourages the use of the name Ivory Coast in English, preferring the French name to be used in all languages ....
     (Ivory Coast)
  • Equatorial Guinea
    Equatorial Guinea

    The Republic of Equatorial Guinea is a Spanish-speaking country located in Central Africa. With an area of 28,000 km2 it is one of the smallest countries in continental Africa, having a population estimated at half a million....
  • Gabon
    Gabon

    Gabon is a country in west central Africa sharing borders with the Gulf of Guinea to the west, Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, and Cameroon to the north, with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south....
  • Guinea
    Guinea

    Guinea, officially Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa formerly known as French Guinea. The country's current population is estimated at 10,211,437 ....
     (Guinea-Conakry)
  • Guinea-Bissau
    Guinea-Bissau

    The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in western Africa, and one of the smallest states in continental Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west....
  • Madagascar
    Madagascar

    Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the List of islands by area, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are Endemism to Madagascar....
  • Peru
    Peru

    Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
  • Republic of Korea
    South Korea

    South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea , ), often referred to as Korea and the "names of Korea#Revival of the names", is a Semi-presidential system republic in East Asia, located in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula....
     (South Korea)
  • Tanzania
    Tanzania

    Tanzania , officially the United Republic of Tanzania , is a country in East Africa that is bordered by Kenya and Uganda on the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique on the south....
  • Togo
    Togo

    Togo is a narrow country in West Africa bordering Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lom? is located....
  • Tunisia
    Tunisia

    Tunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast....
  • Uganda
    Uganda

    The Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania....


Semi-presidential systems
In semi-presidential systems, there is usually both a president and a prime minister. In such systems, the president has genuine executive authority, unlike in a parliamentary republic, but some of the role of a head of government is exercised by the prime minister who is also leader of the legislature
Legislature

Legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to create and change laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law....
.

  • Algeria
    Algeria

    Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....
  • Angola
    Angola

    Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordering Namibia to the south, Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, and Zambia to the east, and with a west coast along the Atlantic Ocean....
  • Armenia
    Armenia

    Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
  • Azerbaijan
    Azerbaijan

    Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan , is the largest and most populous country in the South Caucasus, located partially in Eastern Europe and partially in Western Asia....
  • Belarus
    Belarus

    Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north....
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country on the Balkans peninsula of South Eastern Europe with an area of 51,129 square kilometres . Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the south, Bosnia and Herzegovina is Landlocked#Nearly landlocked, except for 26 kilometres of the Adriatic Sea coas...
  • Burkina Faso
    Burkina Faso

    Burkina Faso , also known by its short-form name Burkina, is a landlocked nation in West Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the south east, Togo and Ghana to the south, and C?te d'Ivoire to the south west....
  • Cape Verde
    Cape Verde

    The Republic of Cape Verde , is an archipelago nation located in the Macaronesia ecoregion of the North Atlantic Ocean, off the western coast of Africa....
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo
    Democratic Republic of the Congo

    The Democratic Republic of the Congo , is a country in central Africa with a small length of Atlantic coastline. It is the third largest list of African countries in order of geographical area....
     (Congo-Kinshasa)
  • Egypt
    Egypt

    Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
  • Finland
    Finland

    Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....
  • France
    France

    France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
  • Georgia
    Georgia (country)

    Georgia is a transcontinental country in the Caucasus region, located at the dividing line between Europe and Asia. It is bordered by the Russia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, Armenia to the south, and Turkey to the southwest....
  • Guyana
    Guyana

    Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and previously known as British Guiana, is the only state of the Commonwealth of Nations on mainland South America....
  • Haiti
    Haiti

    Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Haitian Creole language- and French language-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago....
  • Kazakhstan
    Kazakhstan

    Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the List of countries by area as well as the world's largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km? ....
  • Kenya
    Kenya

    The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the northeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border....
  • Kyrgyzstan
    Kyrgyzstan

    Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and People's Republic of China to the east....
  • Lebanon
    Lebanon

    Lebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic , is a country in Western Asia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea....
  • Lithuania
    Lithuania

    Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest....
  • Mali
    Mali

    Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked nation in West Africa. Mali is the seventh largest country in Africa, bordering Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the C?te d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west....
  • Moldova
    Moldova

    Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south....
  • Mongolia
    Mongolia

    Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and People's Republic of China to the south, east and west....
  • Mozambique
    Mozambique

    Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest....
  • Namibia
    Namibia

    Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in southern Africa on the Atlantic Ocean coast. It shares borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east, and South Africa to the south....
  • Niger
    Niger

    Niger , officially the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east....
  • Palestinian National Authority
    Palestinian National Authority

    The Palestinian National Authority is the administrative organization established to government parts of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip....
     (Palestine)
  • Peru
    Peru

    Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
  • Romania
    Romania

    Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
  • Russian Federation
  • Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
    Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

    The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a Legal status of Western Sahara which claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, a former Spain colony....
     (Western Sahara)
  • São Tomé and Príncipe
    São Tomé and Príncipe

    S?o Tom? and Pr?ncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of S?o Tom? and Pr?ncipe, is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Africa....
  • Senegal
    Senegal

    Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the S?n?gal River in West Africa. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south....
  • Serbia
    Serbia

    Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country in Central Europe and Balkans Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkans....
  • Sri Lanka
    Sri Lanka

    Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....
  • Republic of China
    Republic of China

    The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan....
     (Taiwan)
  • Tajikistan
    Tajikistan

    Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east....
  • Ukraine
    Ukraine

    Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
  • Uzbekistan
    Uzbekistan

    Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked_country country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union....
  • Yemen
    Yemen

    Yemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is an Arab country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. Yemen has an estimated population of more than 23 million people and is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the North, the Red Sea to the West, the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden to the South, and Oman to the east....
  • Zimbabwe
    Zimbabwe

    Zimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo River rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east....


Parliamentary republics

A parliamentary republic
Parliamentary republic

A parliamentary republic or parliamentary constitutional republic is a form of a republic which operates under a parliamentary system of government ....
 is a system in which a prime minister
Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of Cabinet in the Executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician....
 is the active head of the executive branch of government and also leader of the legislature
Legislature

Legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to create and change laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law....
. The president's degree of executive power may range from being reasonably significant (e.g. Pakistan) to little or none at all (eg. Ireland). Where the president holds little executive power, their function is primarily that of a symbolic figurehead
Figurehead

A figurehead is a carved wooden decoration, often female or bestial, found at the prow of ships largely made between the 16th and 19th century....
.

  • Albania
    Albania

    Albania , officially the Republic of Albania , is a country in Balkans. It is bordered by Greece to the south-east, Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, and the Republic of Macedonia to the east....
  • Austria
    Austria

    Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
  • Bangladesh
    Bangladesh

    , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south....
  • Bulgaria
    Bulgaria

    The state of Bulgaria , Scientific transliteration Balgarija, officially the Republic of Bulgaria has played a significant role in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe for over fourteen centuries....
  • Croatia
    Croatia

    Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a Central European country at the crossroads of Pannonian Plain, Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea....
  • Czech Republic
    Czech Republic

    The Czech Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east....
  • Dominica
    Dominica

    The Commonwealth of Dominica, commonly known as Dominica, is an island nation in the Caribbean Sea. To the north/northwest lies Guadeloupe, to the southeast Martinique....
  • East Timor
    East Timor

    East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro Island and Jaco , and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor....
     (Timor-Leste)
  • Estonia
    Estonia

    Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Finland across the Gulf of Finland, to the west by Sweden across the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russia ....
  • Ethiopia
    Ethiopia

    Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
  • Germany
    Germany

    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
  • Greece
    Greece

    Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
  • Hungary
    Hungary

    Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
  • Iceland
    Iceland

    Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland , is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland....
  • India
    India

    India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
  • Ireland
    Republic of Ireland

    Ireland is an Island country in north-western Europe. The modern Sovereignty state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned by the British on 3 May 1921....
  • Iraq
    Iraq

    Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
  • Israel
    Israel

    Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
  • Italy
    Italy

    Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
  • Kosovo
    Kosovo

    Kosovo is a disputed region in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo . Serbia does not recognise the secession of Kosovo and considers it a United Nations-governed entity within its sovereign territory, the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija that was re-created by Slobodan M...
  • Latvia
    Latvia

    Latvia The Latvians are a Baltic peoples culturally related to the Estonians and Lithuanians, with the Latvian language having many similarities with Lithuanian language, but not with the Estonian language....
  • Macedonia
    Republic of Macedonia

    The Republic of Macedonia , , often referred to simply as Macedonia, is a landlocked country on the Balkans in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south and Albania to the west....
  • Malta
    Malta

    Malta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed country European microstates microstate in the European Union....
  • Mauritius
    Mauritius

    Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius, , is an island nation off the coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometres east of Madagascar....
  • Mauritania
    Mauritania

    Mauritania , officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, by Senegal on the southwest, by Mali on the east and southeast, by Algeria on the northeast, and by the Morocco-controlled Western Sahara on the northwest....
  • Montenegro
    Montenegro

    Montenegro , Montenegrin language/Serbian language: ???? ????, Crna Gora , ) is a country located in Balkans. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the north, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the south....
  • Nepal
    Nepal

    Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia and is the world's youngest republic. It is bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by India....
  • Pakistan
    Pakistan

    Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
  • Poland
    Poland

    Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
  • Portugal
    Portugal

    Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
  • Samoa
    Samoa

    Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa , is a country governing the western part of the Samoan Islands archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean....
  • Singapore
    Singapore

    Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country microstate located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It lies 137 kilometres north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands....
  • Slovakia
    Slovakia

    Slovakia . It was amended in September 1998 to allow direct election of the president and again in February 2001 due to EU admission requirements....
  • Slovenia
    Slovenia

    Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north....
  • Trinidad and Tobago
    Trinidad and Tobago

    The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an island country in the southern Caribbean, lying northeast of the South American country of Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles....
  • Turkey
    Turkey

    Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
  • Vanuatu
    Vanuatu

    Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, north-east of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and south of the Solomon Islands, near New Zealand....


Mixed republican systems

What would normally be considered a prime minister is given title of president and serves as both the head of state and government.

  • Botswana
    Botswana

    The Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Citizens of Botswana are called "Batswana" , regardless of ethnicity. Formerly a British protectorate of Bechuanaland Protectorate, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth of Nations on 30 September 1966....
  • Kiribati
    Kiribati

    Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. It is composed of List of islands belonging to Kiribati and one Tectonic uplift island, dispersed over 3,500,000 square kilometres, straddling the equator, and bordering the International Date Line to the east....
  • Marshall Islands
    Marshall Islands

    The Marshall Islands , officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands , is a Micronesian island nation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator....
  • Federated States of Micronesia
    Federated States of Micronesia

    The Federated States of Micronesia is an island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, north of Papua New Guinea. The country is a sovereign state in Associated state with the United States....
     (Micronesia)
  • Nauru
    Nauru

    Nauru , officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island nation in the Micronesian Pacific Ocean....
  • San Marino
    San Marino

    The Most Serene Republic of San Marino is a country in the Apennine Mountains. It is a landlocked country Enclave and exclave, completely surrounded by Italy....
  • South Africa
    South Africa

    The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
  • Suriname
    Suriname

    Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname is a country in northern South America. Originally, the country was spelled Surinam by English settlers who founded the first colony at Marshall's Creek, along the Suriname River, and was Geographical renaming Nederlands Guyana, Netherlands Guiana or Dutch Guiana....
  • Switzerland
    Switzerland

    Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....


Constitutional monarchies

These are systems in which the head of state
Head of State

Head of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchic or republican nation-state, federation, commonwealth or any other political state....
 is a constitutional monarch; the existence of their office and their ability to exercise their authority is established and constrained by constitutional law.

Constitutional monarchies with ceremonial monarchs
Systems in which a prime minister
Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of Cabinet in the Executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician....
 is the active head of the executive branch of government. In some cases the prime minister is also leader of the legislature
Legislature

Legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to create and change laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law....
, in other cases the executive branch is clearly separated from legislature although the entire cabinet or individual ministers must step down in the case of vote of no confidence. The head of state
Head of State

Head of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchic or republican nation-state, federation, commonwealth or any other political state....
 is a constitutional monarch who only exercises his or her powers with the consent of the government, the people or their representatives.
  • Andorra
    Andorra

    Andorra , officially the Principality of Andorra , also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, is a small landlocked country in western Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France....
  • Antigua and Barbuda
    Antigua and Barbuda

    Antigua and Barbuda is an island nation located on the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. As its name suggests, it consists of two major islands Antigua and Barbuda as well as a number of smaller islets....
  • Australia
    Australia

    Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
  • Bahamas
  • Barbados
    Barbados

    Barbados , situated just east of the Caribbean Sea, is an independent Continental Island-island nation in the western Atlantic Ocean. Located at roughly 13? North of the equator and 59? West of the prime meridian, it is considered a part of the Lesser Antilles....
  • Belgium
    Belgium

    * A small German-speaking Community of Belgium exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the history of Belgium and a complex Communities and regions of Belgium....
  • Belize
    Belize

    Belize , formerly British Honduras, is a country in Central America. Once part of the Maya civilization, and very briefly the Spanish Empire, it was most recently affiliated with the British Empire, prior to gaining its independence in 1981....
  • Cambodia
    Cambodia

    The Kingdom of Cambodia is a country in South East Asia with a population of over 13 million people. The kingdom's capital and largest city is Phnom Penh....
  • Canada
    Canada

    Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
  • Denmark
    Denmark

    Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....
  • Grenada
    Grenada

    Grenada is an island nation that includes the southern Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines....
  • Jamaica
    Jamaica

    Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width situated in the Caribbean Sea. It is about south of Cuba, and west of the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated....
  • Japan
    Japan

    Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
  • Lesotho
    Lesotho

    Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave ? entirely surrounded by the South Africa. Formerly Basutoland, it is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations....
  • Luxembourg
    Luxembourg

    Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a small landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany....
  • Malaysia
    Malaysia

    Malaysia is a federation that consists of States of Malaysia in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government....
  • Netherlands
    Kingdom of the Netherlands

    From 1830 to 1954, the "Kingdom of the Netherlands" referred to the Netherlands Kingdom and its colonial possessions.Suriname was a constituent nation within the Kingdom from 1954 to 1975....
  • New Zealand
    New Zealand

    New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
  • Norway
    Norway

    Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
  • Papua New Guinea
    Papua New Guinea

    Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
  • Saint Kitts and Nevis
    Saint Kitts and Nevis

    The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis , located in the Leeward Islands, is a federal two-island nation in the West Indies. It is the smallest nation in the Americas, in both List of countries by area and List of countries by population....
  • Saint Lucia
    Saint Lucia

    Saint Lucia is an island nation in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique....
  • Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean Sea. Its territory consists of the main island of Saint Vincent and the northern two-thirds of the Grenadines....
  • Solomon Islands
    Solomon Islands

    For the group of islands rather than the nation, see Solomon Islands .The Solomon Islands is a country in Melanesia, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands....
  • Spain
    Spain

    Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
  • Sweden
    Sweden

    Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
  • Thailand
    Thailand

    The Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Laos and Myanmar, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Myanmar....
  • Tuvalu
    Tuvalu

    Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia....
  • United Kingdom
    United Kingdom

    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....


Constitutional monarchies with active monarchs
The prime minister is the nation's active executive but the monarch still has considerable political powers that can be used at their own discretion.

  • Bahrain
    Bahrain

    The Kingdom of Bahrain, in , , literally Kingdom of the Two Seas).Bahrain is an Arabic island country in the Persian Gulf ruled by the Al Khalifa regime....
  • Bhutan
    Bhutan

    The Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked nation in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalaya Mountains and is bordered to the south, east and west by India and to the north by the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China....
  • Jordan
    Jordan

    Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba....
  • Kuwait
    Kuwait

    The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab emirate on the coast of the Persian Gulf, enclosed by Saudi Arabia to the south and Iraq to the north and west....
  • Liechtenstein
    Liechtenstein

    The Principality of Liechtenstein is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked country alpine country microstate in Western Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and by Austria to the east....
  • Monaco
    Monaco

    Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a small sovereign city-state located in South Western Europe . The territory lies on the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea....
  • Morocco
    Morocco

    Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
  • Tonga
    Tonga

    The Kingdom of Tonga in the south Pacific Ocean comprises an archipelago of 171 islands, 48 of them inhabited, stretching over a distance of about 800 kilometres in a north-south line....
  • United Arab Emirates
    United Arab Emirates

    The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven states situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia....


Absolute monarchies

Specifically, monarchies in which the monarch's exercise of power is unconstrained by any substantive constitutional law.

  • Brunei
    Brunei

    Brunei Darussalam, officially the State of Brunei, Abode of Peace , is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia....
  • Oman
    Oman

    Oman , officially the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab country in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It borders the United Arab Emirates on the northwest, Saudi Arabia on the west and Yemen on the southwest....
  • Qatar
    Qatar

    Qatar , officially the State of Qatar , is an Arab emirate in Southwest Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the larger Arabian Peninsula....
  • Saudi Arabia
    Saudi Arabia

    The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south....
  • Swaziland
    Swaziland

    The Kingdom of Swaziland is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south, and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique....


Theocracies

States based on a state religion
State religion

A state religion is a religion body or creed officially endorsed by the state. Practically, a state without a state religion is called a secular state....
 where the head of state is selected by some form of religious hierarchy.

  • Iran
    Iran

    Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
     (to some degree)
  • Vatican City
    Vatican City

    Vatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a Landlocked country sovereignty city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the Capital of Italy....


One-party states

States in which political power is concentrated within a single political party
Political party

A political party is a political organization that seeks to attain and maintain politics power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns....
 whose operations are largely fused with the government hierarchy. However, some do have elected governments.

  • China, People's Republic of
    People's Republic of China

    The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
     (Communist Party
    Communist Party of China

    The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and the ruling party of the People's Republic of China and the world's largest political party....
    ) (list
    List of political parties in the People's Republic of China

    The People's Republic of China is formally a multi-party state under the leadership of the Communist Party of China in the popular front model similar to the former Communist-era Eastern European countries such as the National Front ....
    )
  • Cuba
    Cuba

    The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
     (Communist Party
    Communist Party of Cuba

    The Communist Party of Cuba is currently the governing political party in Cuba. It operates on a Marxism-Leninism model. The present Cuban constitution ascribes the role of the Party to be the "leading force of society and of the state"....
    ) (list
    List of political parties in Cuba

    Political parties in Cuba lists political party in this country.The role of the Communist Party of Cuba is enshrined in the Constitution of Cuba....
    )
  • Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)(Workers' Party
    Workers' Party of Korea

    The Workers? Party of Korea is the ruling party of the Democratic People?s Republic of Korea , commonly known as North Korea. It is also called the Korean Workers' Party ....
    ) (list
    List of political parties in North Korea

    Political parties in North Korea are heavily tied to the function of the government. politics of North Korea has several parties, but the Workers Party of Korea has a stranglehold on political power....
    )
  • Laos
    Laos

    Laos , officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and People's Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west....
     (Revolutionary Party
    Lao People's Revolutionary Party

    The Lao People's Revolutionary Party is the Communist Party of Laos. Since 1975, it has monopolized political power in the country. The policy-making organs are the politburo and the central committee....
    ) (list
    List of political parties in Laos

    Political parties in Laos lists political party in politics of Laos.Laos is a single-party state. This means that only one political party, the Lao People's Revolutionary Party is legally allowed to hold effective power....
    )
  • Syria
    Syria

    Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
     (Arab Socialist Ba'th Party) (list
    List of political parties in Syria

    Political parties in Syria lists political party in politics of Syria.While not formally a single-party state, all political life in Syria is controlled by the Baath Party through a political "front", much like in the former German Democratic Republic....
    )
  • Turkmenistan
    Turkmenistan

    Turkmenistan is a Turkic peoples country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic ....
     (Democratic Party
    Democratic Party of Turkmenistan

    The Democratic Party of Turkmenistan is the only political party in Turkmenistan. The DPT was led by former Soviet dictator Saparmurat Niyazov from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s until his death in 2006....
    ) (list)
  • Vietnam
    Vietnam

    Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east....
     (Communist Party
    Communist Party of Vietnam

    The Communist Party of Vietnam is the currently ruling, as well as the only legal political party in Vietnam. It is a Marxism-Leninism Communist Party supported by the Vietnamese Fatherland Front....
    ) (list
    List of political parties in Vietnam

    Political parties in Vietnam lists political party in politics of Vietnam.Vietnam is a single-party state. This means that only one political party, the Communist Party of Vietnam is legally allowed to hold effective power....
    )


Military junta states

The nation's military control the organs of government and all high-ranking political executives are also members of the military hierarchy.

  • Fiji
    Fiji

    Fiji , officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands , is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu....
     (until 2010)
  • Libya
    Libya

    Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
  • Myanmar
    Myanmar

    Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia, or Indochina. The country is bordered by the People's Republic of China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, and the Bay of Bengal to the southwest with...
  • Mauritania
    Mauritania

    Mauritania , officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, by Senegal on the southwest, by Mali on the east and southeast, by Algeria on the northeast, and by the Morocco-controlled Western Sahara on the northwest....
  • Guinea
    Guinea

    Guinea, officially Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa formerly known as French Guinea. The country's current population is estimated at 10,211,437 ....


Transitional

States which have a system of government which is in transition or turmoil and are classified with the current direction of change.

  • Eritrea
    Eritrea

    Eritrea , officially the Country of Eritrea, is a country in Northeast Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast....
     (presidential republic)
  • Somalia
    Somalia

    Somalia , officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa....
     (semi-presidential republic)


Systems of Internal Governance


Federal

States in which the federal government
Federal government

A federal government is the common government of a federation.The structure of federal governments vary from institution to institution based on a broad definition of federation....
 shares power with semi-independent regional governments. In many cases, the central government is (in theory) a creation of the regional governments; a prime example is the United States.

  • Argentina
    Argentina

    Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
     (23 provinces
    Provinces of Argentina

    Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one federal district . The federal district and the provinces have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system....
     and 1 autonomous city
    Buenos Aires

    Buenos Aires is the Capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southern shore of the R?o de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent....
    )
  • Australia
    Australia

    Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
     (6 states and 2 territories
    States and territories of Australia

    The Australia is made up of six states and two major mainland territories. There are also lesser territories that are under the administration of the federal government....
    )
  • Austria
    Austria

    Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
     (9 states
    States of Austria

    Austria is a federation made up of nine State , known in German language as L?nder . Since Land is also the German word for "country", the term Bundesl?nder is often used instead to avoid ambiguity....
    )
  • Belgium
    Belgium

    * A small German-speaking Community of Belgium exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the history of Belgium and a complex Communities and regions of Belgium....
     (3 regions and 3 linguistic communities)
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country on the Balkans peninsula of South Eastern Europe with an area of 51,129 square kilometres . Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the south, Bosnia and Herzegovina is Landlocked#Nearly landlocked, except for 26 kilometres of the Adriatic Sea coas...
     (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

    The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the two Politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina that compose the sovereign country of Bosnia and Herzegovina ....
    , Republika Srpska
    Republika Srpska

    Republika Srpska is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina which represent a lower level of governance in the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the other entity is the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
     and Brcko District
    Brcko District

    Brcko District in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina is a self-governing, entity-neutral, administrative unit under the sovereignty of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
    )
  • Brazil
    Brazil

    Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
     (26 states
    States of Brazil

    The Federative Republic of Brazil is a union of twenty-six estados and formed by the states and one district, the Brazilian Federal District which contains the capital city, Bras?lia....
     and 1 federal district
    Brazilian Federal District

    The Federal District is set apart for Bras?lia, the capital of Brazil. Located in a region called Planalto Central, the Distrito Federal is divided in 19 administrative regions....
    )
  • Canada
    Canada

    Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
     (10 provinces and 3 territories
    Provinces and territories of Canada

    The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the List of countries and outlying territories by total area. The major difference between a Canada province and a territory is that a province receives its power and authority directly from the Monarchy in Canada, via the Constitution Act, 1867, whereas territories derive their manda...
    )
  • Comoros
    Comoros

    The Comoros , officially the Union of the Comoros is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, located off the eastern coast of Africa on the northern end of the Mozambique Channel between northern Madagascar and northeastern Mozambique....
     (Anjouan
    Anjouan

    Anjouan is an autonomous island of the Union of Comoros. The island is located in the Indian Ocean. Its capital is Mutsamudu and its population as of 2006 is about 277,500....
    , Grande Comore
    Grande Comore

    Grande Comore is an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation. Most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group....
    , Mohéli
    Mohéli

    Moh?li, also known as Mwali, is one of the three islands which make up the nation of Comoros. Moh?li is located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa....
    )
  • Ethiopia
    Ethiopia

    Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
     (9 regions and 3 chartered cities
    Regions of Ethiopia

    Ethiopia is divided into 9 ethnically-based administrative regions and three chartered cities . The word "kilil" more specifically means "reservation" or "protected area" and the ethnicity basis of the regions and choice of the word "kilil" has drawn fierce criticism from Politics of Ethiopia, who have drawn comparisons to the bantustans of...
    )
  • Germany
    Germany

    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
     (16 states
    States of Germany

    Germany is a federation consisting of sixteen states, known in German language as L?nder . Since Land is the literal German word for "country", the term Bundesl?nder is commonly used colloquially, as it is more specific, though technically incorrect within the corpus of German law....
    )
  • India
    India

    India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
     (28 states and 7 union territories
    States and territories of India

    India is a Federal_republic union of states comprising twenty-eight State s and seven Union Territory. The states and territories are further Subdivisions of India into districts and so on....
    )
  • Iraq
    Iraq

    Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
     (Currently 18 governates
    Governorates of Iraq

    |||}Iraq is divided into 18 governorates :The current set of governorates was established in 1976.The governorates are divided into Qadaa ....
     and 1 region
    Regions of Iraq

    A Region of Iraq is a subdivision created by the Constitution of Iraq that was ratified in October 2005.Iraq's Federalism in Iraq affords any of the 18 provinces the opportunity to form an autonomous region via referendum....
    )
  • Malaysia
    Malaysia

    Malaysia is a federation that consists of States of Malaysia in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government....
     (13 states
    States of Malaysia

    Malaysia is a federation which consists of thirteen State and three Federal Territory . Eleven states and two federal territories are located on the Malay Peninsula while the remaining two states and one federal territory are on the island of Borneo....
     and 3 federal territories)
  • Mexico
    Mexico

    The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
     (31 states
    States of Mexico

    The Mexico are a federation made up of thirty-one "free and sovereign states". These states constitute one federated State or Union. The federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over the Mexico City, a territory which does not belong to any state but to all, as well as the islands, atolls and reefs that do not belong to any stat...
     and 1 federal district
    Mexico City

    Mexico City is the capital city of Mexico. It is the most important economic, industrial, and cultural center in the country; the most populous city with over 8,836,045 inhabitants in 2008....
    )
  • Micronesia
    Federated States of Micronesia

    The Federated States of Micronesia is an island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, north of Papua New Guinea. The country is a sovereign state in Associated state with the United States....
     (Chuuk
    Chuuk

    Chuuk — formerly Truk, Ruk, Hogoleu, Torres, Ugulat, and Lugulus — is an island group in the south western part of the Pacific Ocean....
    , Kosrae
    Kosrae

    Kosrae , formerly known as Kusaie, is an island in Micronesia and is by itself one of four states of the Federated States of Micronesia....
    , Pohnpei
    Pohnpei

    Pohnpei "upon a stone altar " is the name of one of the four state s in the Federated States of Micronesia , and among the Senyavin Islands ....
     and Yap
    YAP

    Yet Another Previewer or Yet Another Prolog are two document previewing applications and one Prolog compiler often referred to as YAP....
    )
  • Nigeria
    Nigeria

    Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federation constitutional republic comprising States of Nigeria and one Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria....
     (36 states
    States of Nigeria

    Nigeria is currently categorized into 36 states and Abuja, the federal capital territory. The states are further divided into 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria...
     and 1 federal capital territory
    Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria

    The Federal Capital Territory is the home of Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. The Territory was formed in 1976 from parts of former Nassarawa State, Niger State, and Kogi State States....
    )
  • Pakistan
    Pakistan

    Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
     (4 provinces and 2 territories
    Subdivisions of Pakistan

    Pakistan is subdivided into four provinces, two federally administered areas and a federal capital territory. The provinces are subdivided into more than a hundred Zillahs, or districts and further subdivided into Tehsils ....
    )
  • Palau
    Palau

    Palau , officially the Republic of Palau , is an borderless country in the Pacific Ocean, some 500 miles east of the Philippines and 2,000 miles south of Tokyo....
     (16 states
    States of Palau

    Palau is divided into sixteen administrative regions, called states .External links...
    )
  • Papua New Guinea
    Papua New Guinea

    Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
     (18 provinces
    Provinces of Papua New Guinea

    The provinces of Papua New Guinea are the primary administrative divisions of the country. Provincial governments are branches of the national government Papua New Guinea is not a federation of provinces....
    , 1 autonomous region and 1 capital district
    National Capital District (Papua New Guinea)

    The National Capital District of Papua New Guinea is the incorporated area around Port Moresby, which is the capital of Papua New Guinea. It covers an area of 240 km? and has a population of 254,158 ....
    )
  • Russia
    Russia

    Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
     (46 oblasts
    Oblasts of Russia

    The Russian Federation is divided into 83 federal subjects of Russia , of which 46 are oblasts :...
    , 21 republics
    Republics of Russia

    The Russia is divided into 83 federal subjects of Russia , 21 of which are republics. The republics represent areas of non-Russian ethnicity....
    , 9 krais
    Krais of Russia

    The Russia is divided into 83 federal subjects of Russia, of which nine are krais, or krays :#Altai Krai#Kamchatka Krai...
    , 4 autonomous okrugs
    Autonomous okrugs of Russia

    Autonomous okrug is a type of federal subject of Russia of Russia and simultaneously a type of administrative division of some federal subjects....
    , 2 federal cities
    Federal cities of Russia

    The Russian Federation is divided into 83 federal subjects of Russia, two of which are federal city.References ...
    , 1 autonomous oblast
    Jewish Autonomous Oblast

    Jewish Autonomous Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia of Russia situated in the Far Eastern Federal District federal districts of Russia, bordering Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast of Russia and Heilongjiang province of People's Republic of China....
    )
  • Saint Kitts and Nevis
    Saint Kitts and Nevis

    The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis , located in the Leeward Islands, is a federal two-island nation in the West Indies. It is the smallest nation in the Americas, in both List of countries by area and List of countries by population....
     (14 parishes
    Parishes of Saint Kitts and Nevis

    The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis is divided into 14 parish es. Nine parishes are located on the island of Saint Kitts and five on Nevis. The parishes are drawn like pie-slices from the ridgeline of the central mountains of both islands....
    )
  • South Africa
    South Africa

    The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
     (9 provinces
    Provinces of South Africa

    South Africa is currently divided into nine provinces. On the eve of the South African general election, 1994, South Africa's former homelands, also known as Bantustans, were reintegrated and the four existing provinces were divided into nine....
    )
  • Switzerland
    Switzerland

    Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
     (26 cantons
    Cantons of Switzerland

    File:Karte 13 Alte Orte.pngThe 26 cantons of Switzerland are the State s of the federation of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereignty state with its own borders, army and currency until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848....
    )
  • United Arab Emirates
    United Arab Emirates

    The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven states situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia....
     (7 emirates
    Emirates of the United Arab Emirates

    |||}The United Arab Emirates is composed of 7 emirates :See also*ISO 3166-2:AE...
    )
  • United States
    United States

    The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
     (50 states
    U.S. state

    A U.S. state is any one of the 50 state of the United States that share sovereignty with the federal government of the United States . Because of this shared sovereignty, an United States is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of Domicile ....
    , 2 commonwealths
    Commonwealth (United States insular area)

    In the terminology of the United States insular areas, a Commonwealth is a type of organized territory but Unincorporated territories of the United States dependent territory....
    , 1 federal district
    Washington, D.C.

    Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the Capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790....
    , and 14 territories)
  • Venezuela
    Venezuela

    Venezuela , officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a country on the northern coast of South America.The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea....
     (23 states
    States of Venezuela

    Venezuela is divided into 23 states , 1 Venezuelan Capital District and the Venezuelan Federal Dependencies that consist of a large number of Venezuelan islands....
    , 1 capital district
    Venezuelan Capital District

    The Capital District of Venezuela is a federal district corresponding to the Capital Caracas. Within the federal system it shares the same rank as the states of Venezuela....
     and 1 federal dependency
    Federal dependencies of Venezuela

    The Federal Dependencies of Venezuela encompass all of Venezuela's off shore islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Venezuela. These islands, with a total area of 342 square kilometres, are sparsely populated - according to official sources only 3000 people live there permanently, with another hundred from Isla Margarita who live there...
    )


Devolved

States in which the central government has delegated some of its powers to self-governing subsidiary governments, creating a quasi-federation.

  • Spain
    Spain

    Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
     (17 autonomous communities
    Autonomous communities of Spain

    The Autonomous Community is the first-level political division of the Kingdom of Spain, established in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978....
     and 2 autonomous cities
    Plazas de soberanía

    The plazas de soberan?a , formerly referred as "?frica Septentrional Espa?ola" or simply "?frica Espa?ola" are the current Spain territories in continental North Africa, bordering Morocco....
    )
  • United Kingdom
    United Kingdom

    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
     (England
    England

    native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
    , Scotland
    Scotland

    conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
    , Wales
    Wales

    native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
     and Northern Ireland
    Northern Ireland

    conventional_long_name = Northern Ireland|native_name= Tuaisceart ?ireannNorlin Airlann|motto =|image_map = Europe location N-IRL2.png...
    )


Regionalised unitary

States in which the central government has delegated some of its powers to regional governments.

  • People's Republic of China
    People's Republic of China

    The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
     (22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions
    Autonomous regions of China

    An autonomous region is a first-level administrative subdivision of People's Republic of China. Like Province , an autonomous region has its own local government, but an autonomous region theoretically has more legislative rights....
    , 4 municipalities, and 2 special administrative regions)
  • Italy
    Italy

    Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
     (20 regions
    Regions of Italy

    The Region#Political regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state. There are twenty regions autonomous, five of them are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes....
    , 5 granted 'autonomous' status)
  • New Zealand
    New Zealand

    New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
     (16 regions
    Regions of New Zealand

    The region is the top tier of local government in New Zealand. There are 16 regions of New Zealand. Twelve are governed by an elected regional council, while four are governed by Territorial Authorities of New Zealand which also perform the functions of a regional council and thus are known as unitary authority....
    )
  • Philippines
    Philippines

    The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
     (17 regions
    Regions of the Philippines

    In the Philippines, regions are administrative divisions of the Philippines that serve primarily to organize the 81 provinces of the Philippines for administrative convenience....
    , 1 autonomous region
    Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

    The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is the Regions of the Philippines of the Philippines that is composed of all the Philippines' predominantly Islam in the Philippines Provinces of the Philippines, namely: Basilan , Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and the Philippines' only predominantly Muslim Cities of the Philippines,...
    )


Federacy

A federacy
Federacy

A federacy is a form of government where one or several substate units enjoy considerably more independence than the majority of the substate units....
 is a country in which some substates function like states in a federation and others like states in a unitary state.

  • Denmark
    Denmark

    Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....
     with 2 autonomous regions and 5 regions
    Regions of Denmark

    The Regions of Denmark were created on 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform which created five new administrative units to replace the country's traditional thirteen Counties of Denmark ....
    ;
  • Finland
    Finland

    Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....
     with 1 autonomous province and 19 regions
    Regions of Finland

    Finland is divided into 20 regions . The regions are governed by regional councils, which serve as forums of cooperation for the Municipalities of Finland of a region....
    ;
  • France
    France

    France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
     with 1 sui generis collectivity and 26 régions
    Régions of France

    France is divided into 26 regions or r?gions , of which 21 are in continental metropolitan France, one is the island of Corsica, and four lie overseas....
    , 4 collectivités d'outre-mer, 1 territoire d'outre-mer;
  • Kingdom of the Netherlands
    Kingdom of the Netherlands

    From 1830 to 1954, the "Kingdom of the Netherlands" referred to the Netherlands Kingdom and its colonial possessions.Suriname was a constituent nation within the Kingdom from 1954 to 1975....
     with 2 states and 12 provinces
    Provinces of the Netherlands

    A Dutch province represents the administrative layer in between the national government and the local municipalities, having the responsibility for matters of subnational or regional importance....
    ;
  • Portugal
    Portugal

    Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
     with 2 autonomous regions (Azores
    Azores

    The Azores is a Portugal archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500 km from Lisbon and about 3,900 km from the east coast of North America....
     and Madeira
    Madeira

    Madeira is a Portugal archipelago in the north Atlantic Ocean that lies between and . It is one of the Autonomous regions of Portugal, with Madeira Island and Porto Santo Island being the only inhabited islands....
    ) and 18 districts;
  • Serbia
    Serbia

    Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country in Central Europe and Balkans Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkans....
    , significant autonomy granted to Vojvodina
    Vojvodina

    The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an Subdivisions of Serbia in Serbia, containing about 27% of its total population according to the 2002 Census....
    ;
  • Tanzania
    Tanzania

    Tanzania , officially the United Republic of Tanzania , is a country in East Africa that is bordered by Kenya and Uganda on the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique on the south....
    , 21 mainland regions, 5 regions under autonomous government of Zanzibar
    Zanzibar

    Zanzibar is part of the East African republic of Tanzania. It consists of the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25?50 km off the coast of the mainland....
  • Ukraine
    Ukraine

    Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
    , 24 oblasts, 2 special-status cities, and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea
    Crimea

    Crimea or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is an autonomous republic of Ukraine located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name....
    ;


Unitary

see Unitary state
Unitary state

A unitary state is a country whose three organs of state are governed as one single unit. The political power of government in such states may well be transferred to lower levels, to national, regional or local elected assemblies, governors and mayors , but the central government retains the principal right to recall such delegated power ....


See also

  • List of forms of government
    List of forms of government

    This article lists forms of government and political systems, according to a series of different ways of categorising them. The systems listed are of course not mutually exclusive, and often have overlapping definitions ....
  • List of countries
  • List of countries by date of transition to republican system of government
    List of countries by date of transition to republican system of government

    This is a list of countries by date of their last transition from a monarchy to a republican form of government. There were two periods in recent history when most such transitions took place:...


External links

  • A Chronology of political history based on Government form
  • Chronological development of political history