government

government

The Evolution of Government Systems: A Comparative Analysis

1. Introduction to Government Systems

The three types of government system can be assisting at the same time and prove useful to meet varying sets of policy aims, including mechanisms to enhance policy coherence across policy areas, to gain relevance for the outputs of policies, to feed the resources of policy communities, or to build the leadership necessary for structural reform. The three features discussed are the increasing multi-scalar nature of government, the evolution of the identities and the ambitions of administrative staff, and the broadening stakeholder base because of the process of empowerment in which citizens and organized interest groups have subtleties other than the historically-inherited ones in European countries.

Today’s globalized world demands that new ways for governments to interact with the private sector and civil society be found. However, numerous questions exist concerning the best modes for such interactions and the impact they then produce. The aim of this paper is to contribute to scholars’ and policymakers’ understanding of some central characteristics of these contemporary issues in governance by discussing the evolution of government systems, the criteria for choosing among them, and the legitimization processes inherent to them. We concentrate specifically on three, namely, government by representative democracy, new public management (privatization of services and corporatization of public enterprises, contracting-out of services, downsizing of administrative procedures, decentralization, and the use of performance standards for managing public administrations), and government by governance networks.

2. Historical Development of Government Systems

Shared experiences of humans in society led to common dilemmas. Hunting, agriculture, trade, the division of labor, asymmetric resource ownership, technology improvement, and increase in population size took place over thousands of years in different parts of the world. Social rules, shared norms, and traditions were promoted by examples of leading politicians and priests. The information passed from one generation to another was accumulated in shared historical memories and social stories. The nature of society, structure of voice, minority control, and conflict frequency influenced the creation of different tasks of the state. Common tasks have been historically enforced by more or less similar institutional solutions over time in different societies. The expressiveness of those institutions is readily seen in a variety of examples of political history.

A stable government structure is believed to be a necessary condition for economic growth, the fight against poverty, and international stability. However, governments are frequently subject to massive reforms in most countries around the globe. In a historical context, this is not necessarily something new. Governments have continuously evolved over time. There are cases where extensive changes occurred in the structure of governance, and periods of stability when only minor changes happened. Fundamental questions arise regarding the reasons for those changes. We summarize some widely known historical facts, which contribute routinely to these debates. Then, the experiences drawn from past developments in world regions serve as background information for the hypothesis we address in this paper, which is concerned with timing issues on large transitions in government structure.

3. Types of Government Systems

The first method simplifies the complexity of government by adopting Sallada’s reference to federal, confederal, and unitary governments as based on differently shared leadership and functional authority. A federal government is one in which the supreme controlling administrative sovereignty is shared by several different orders, levels, and institutions. The authority of these administrative levels and institutions is firm and clear for specific functions and purposes, while remaining equal for the citizens’ welfare. The U.S. Government and the United Nations are examples of the federal system of government.

Three important classifications of government systems are based on the division of leadership and government function, the delegation of authority, and the number of levels of administration. A second method of classifying government extends our discussion of the evolutionary process of its evolution. Using this process as the basis, we recognize three categories of government: plant forms of government, full bureaucratic government, and administrative government. Each type possesses common structural elements and performs a variety of responsibilities; it has many identifying characteristics and accomplishes specific objectives. These identifications and objectives are the key elements for comparing and distinguishing among government systems. Future private and professional development will require this emphasis as well as the fundamental understanding of the historical evolution and administrative processes of government.

4. Challenges and Opportunities in Modern Government

Challenges to democratic or limited government are anything that tempt it to expand beyond its responsibilities. In the next section, we first outline and discuss the nature of these four potential challenges to government. Policies that are deliberately focused on improving economic productivity, such as fiscal transparency and government banking accountability, directly after the election through a process such as Recall, and both deliberate engagement with interest groups and a more emergent discussion in the appellate commercial courts regarding the relative importance of national interest compared to the importance of the Rule of Law may all address some of these problems. The point of the exercise is to try and shed some light onto steps that both a country and the international community might be able to take that ameliorate these potential weaknesses and prevent their triggering a Colombian-like perfect storm. The natural advantage of government systems that have been shaped by centuries of predation is that exactly the same infrastructures can, if the necessary rights and oversight are also in place, be used to check and balance government power for the public good.

Governments, over time, have evolved to deal with a variety of common challenges and hence display a highly hierarchical structure. The key disadvantage of government systems is that they tend to be very slow to act and to create policies that benefit its citizens. Looking in some detail at how colonial systems have historically organized governance illuminates many of the key challenges that contemporary government systems face. Certainly, ancient powers were in many senses radically different. Limited technological knowledge, for instance, coupled with a lack of understanding in crop rotation meant that ruling dynasties could not develop large and sophisticated bureaucracies. The institutional capacity of a country matters – it is better equipped to handle a range of problems. However, the same powerful government structures that were once an advantage can create problems for a country in the modern world.

5. Conclusion and Future Trends

Our conclusions are based on the historical evolution of the government systems described in two dimensions of analysis—the geographical and the temporal dimension. The historical evolution of government systems, in both the east and west, shows similar evolutionary stages, corresponding to common events of transformation, although there are also distinctive features in their respective evolution. Thus, the models remind of each other up to a certain point in a certain period, starting from which different stages characterize the development of social and state structures. Using this comparative framework and by looking at the correlation among historical evolutions and modern resemblances, we tested the common paradigms related to the institutional differences between civilizations. Little support was found for the exclusive definitions of eastern and western civilizations due to the persistence and the structural resemblance of certain institutions over the long and very long term. Moreover, by analyzing the reverse process of influence, we showed that the several waves of imitation of the western political system took place over time, the most obvious case in point is the emulation of the Soviet government and economic offer.

This research aimed to provide an insight into the evolution of government systems on a regional basis by comparing the main stages of development of the government systems in some European and Middle East countries over the last centuries. This research paper started by providing a brief insight into the government systems of ancient civilizations, followed by reviewing the main causes that triggered the shift from the absolute monarchy towards the modern government systems of Europe. Then, the governmental systems of some ancient countries from Middle East were analyzed and presented in order to provide a comparison of the stages and causes that made the European government systems reach the modern construction of the government system. Finally, the paper deducted the parallels and differences between the government systems of European and Middle East countries and tested their authenticity by surveying the current situation of the countries analyzed.