List of countries by system of government


This is a list of countries by system of government. There is also a political mapping of the world that shows what form of government each country has, as well as a brief description of what each form of government entails. The list is colour-coded according to the type of government, for example: blue represents a republic with an executive head of state, and pink is a constitutional monarchy with a ceremonial head of state. The colour-coding also appears on the following map, representing the same government categories. The [|legend] of what the different colours represent is found just below the map. It is noteworthy that some scholars in People's Republic of China claim that the country's system of government is "Semi-presidential system combining party and government in actual operation".

List of countries

Map

Legend

Note: this chart represent de jure systems of government, not the de facto degree of democracy. Several states that are constitutional republics are in practice ruled as authoritarian states.

UN member states and observers

Note that Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Mauritania are Islamic Republics.

Partially recognized states

The following states control their territory and are recognized by at least one member state.
NameConstitutional formHead of stateBasis of executive legitimacy

Unrecognized states

The following states/governments control their territory, but are not recognised by any UN member state.
NameConstitutional formHead of stateBasis of executive legitimacy

Systems of governance

Italics indicate states with limited recognition.

Presidential systems

These are systems in which a president is the active head of the executive branch of government, and is elected and remains in office independently of the legislature.
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, in most cases, he or she serves purely at the discretion of the president.
The following list includes democratic and non-democratic states:

Presidential systems without a prime minister

The President has full executive powers.
Note: Iran may be considered to be a theocracy as the government is intertwined with the religious hierarchy

Semi-presidential systems

In semi-presidential systems, there is always both a president and a head of government, commonly but not exclusively styled Prime Minister. In such systems, the president has genuine executive authority, unlike in a parliamentary republic, but the role of a head of government may be exercised by the prime minister.

Premier-presidential systems

The president chooses the prime minister and cabinet, but only the parliament may remove them from office with a vote of no confidence. The president does not have the right to dismiss the prime minister or the cabinet.
The president chooses the prime minister and the cabinet without the confidence vote from the parliament, but must have the support of the parliament majority for their choice. In order to remove a prime minister or the whole cabinet from power, the president can dismiss them or the assembly can remove them by a vote of no confidence.
In a parliamentary republic, the head of government is selected by, or nominated by, the legislature and is also accountable to it. The head of state is ordinarily called president, and in most parliamentary republics is separate from the head of government and serves as a largely apolitical, ceremonial figure. In these systems, the head of government is usually called prime minister, chancellor or premier. In mixed republican systems and directorial republican systems, the head of government also serves as head of state and is usually titled president.

Full parliamentary republican systems

In some full parliamentary systems, the head of state is directly elected by voters. Under some classification systems, however, these systems may instead be classed as semi-presidential systems, despite their weak presidency. Full parliamentary systems that do not have a directly elected head of state usually use either an electoral college or a vote in the legislature to appoint the head of state.
Directly elected head of state
Indirectly elected head of state
Nations with limited recognition are in italics.

Parliamentary republic with an executive presidency

A combined head of state and government in the form of an executive president is either elected by the legislature or by the voters after a few candidates are nominated for the post by the legislature, and they must maintain the confidence of the legislature to remain in office.

Assembly-independent republican systems

A combined head of state and head of government is elected by the legislature, and is immune from a vote of no confidence, unlike a prime minister. They may or may not hold a seat in the legislature.

Directorial republican systems

In the directorial system, a council jointly exercises the powers of both head of state and head of government. The council is elected by the parliament, but it is not subject to parliamentary confidence during its term which has a fixed duration.

Constitutional monarchies

These are systems in which the head of state is a constitutional monarch; the existence of their office and their ability to exercise their authority is established and restrained or held back by constitutional law.

Constitutional monarchies with ceremonial/non-executive monarchs

Systems in which a prime minister is the active head of the executive branch of government. In some cases the prime minister is also leader of the legislature, 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 a vote of no confidence. The head of state is a constitutional monarch who normally only exercises his or her powers with the consent of the government, the people and/or their representatives.
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.
Note: Andorra may be considered a theocracy as the monarch is a joint head of state alongside a religious figure

Absolute monarchies

Specifically, monarchies in which the monarch's exercise of power is unconstrained by any substantive constitutional law.
Note: Vatican City may be considered a theocracy as the monarch is elected by a religious body

One-party states

States in which political power is by law concentrated within one political party whose operations are largely fused with the government hierarchy. However, some do have elected governments.
The nation's military control the organs of government and all high-ranking political executives are also members of the military hierarchy.
No state is currently governed in this manner, though many have been in the past such as Pakistan and Myanmar under the State Peace and Development Council, Chile was also governed by a military dictatorship for 17 years between 1973 and 1990.

Transitional governments

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

Unitary states

A state governed as a single power in which the central government is ultimately supreme and any administrative divisions exercise only the powers that the central government chooses to delegate.
The majority of states in the world have a unitary system of government. Of the 193 UN member states, 165 are governed as unitary states.

Centralised unitary states

States in which most power is exercised by the central government. What local authorities do exist have few powers.

Regionalised unitary states

States in which the central government has delegated some of its powers to regional authorities.
States in which the federal government shares power with semi-independent regional governments. The central government may or may not be a creation of the regional governments.
The exact political character of the European Union is debated, some arguing that it is sui generis, but others arguing that it has features of a federation or a confederation. It has elements of intergovernmentalism, with the European Council acting as its collective "president", and also elements of supranationalism, with the European Commission acting as its executive and bureaucracy. But it is not easily placed in any of the above categories.