Overview Of America and Types of Government 1

This video clip from the documentary video Overview of America describes the major types of governmental systems which exist in the world today, such as Monarchy meaning rule by one, Oligarchy meaning rule by a few, Democracy meaning rule by a majority, Republic meaning rule by law, and Anarchy meaning rule by none.

It is explained that the governmental system of the United States was designed to be a Republic by the Framers of the Constitution, and it is explained why it is preferential to the other types of political systems.

Monarchy:

Monarchy or dictatorship means “rule by one,” which does not exist in the practical sense, but rather it is always a group that puts one of it’s members up front. A King has a council of Nobles or Earls, and dictators have their bureaucrats or commissars— therefore monarchy actually means “rule by a group.” So actually, monarchies or dictatorships are always actually “Oligarchies,” which are covered in the next point.

Oligarchy:

Oligarchy means “rule by a group,” which is how most of the nations of the world are governed today and throughout history. Most of the nations of the world are ruled only by a powerful few.

Anarchy:

Anarchy means “without government.” At times in the past, some people have concluded that many of man’s worse crimes were committed by governments, so they decided that having no government might be a good idea, but this is a mistaken view— as the ancient Greeks stated: “Without law, there can be no freedom,” and the Founding Fathers agreed, knowing that some laws would be necessary to protect a civilized society. In a state of Anarchy, everyone needs to constantly guard life, liberty, and property, and the lives of family members. Also everyone needs to be armed and movement is restricted due to property needing to be protected at all times, therefore a proper amount of government makes everyone freer. People living in such chaos often go to those best able to put an end to it and beg them to take control to restore order, but usually the people who are best able to put an end to the chaos are the very people who started it, therefore those anarchists will eventually form an oligarchy— this is exactly what happened in Russia leading to Lenin taking total power, and in Germany were Hitler’s brownshirts created the chaos needed to put him into power. Anarchy exists only as a temporary transition from something that exists to something desired by the power hungry.

Democracy:

The word “Democracy” comes from two words: Demos meaning “people,” and Kratin meaning “to rule,” therefore democracy means “Majority Rule.” Majority rule may sound like a good idea, but essentially it actually translates to mean “mob rule.” The flaw of Democracy is that the majority is not “restrained”— meaning if more than half of the people can be persuaded to want something in a democracy, that whim will rule.

NOTE: The word “democracy” does not appear in the Declaration of Independence or in the U.S. Constitution, nor does it appear in any of the Constitutions of the 50 States, and in fact the founders did everything they could to keep the United States from having a “democracy.”

Republic:

The word “Republic” comes from two words: Res meaning “thing,” and Publica meaning “public,” therefore Republic means “the public thing,” or “the law.” A true republic is one where the government is limited by law, leaving the people alone. America’s founders had a clean slate to write on, so rather than setting up an oligarchy, they set up the rule of law in a republic. An example is shown of a setting in the "old west" where a lynch mob captures a suspected criminal, and instead of hanging him even though the majority votes for it, he is given a trial due to “the rule of law” in a republic instead of in a democracy.

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