The political regime of the state is a method of organizing the system, reflecting the relations of government bodies and representatives of society, social freedom and the peculiarities of legal life in the country.
Basically, these properties are due to certain traditional features, culture, conditions of the historical formation of the state. So, we can say that in any country has developed its own special and characteristic political regime. Nevertheless, most of them in different states can be found similar features.
Scientific literary sources describe 2 types of socio-legal devices:
- anti-democratic regimes;
- democratic regimes.
Signs of a democratic society
The main features that are characteristic of democracy are:
- rule of law;
- divided power;
- the existence of the real political and social rights of citizens of the state;
- elected authorities;
- the presence of opposition and pluralistic opinions.
Signs of Anti-Democracy
The anti-democratic form of government is divided into totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. Its main properties:
- the primacy of a single party organization;
- the prevailing position of a single form of ownership;
- infringement of rights and freedoms in political life;
- repressive and coercive methods of influence;
- infringement of the influence of elected bodies;
- strengthening the executive branch;
- the prohibition of the existence of opposition party organizations;
- the prohibition of polyparty and dissent;
- the desire of the state to coordinate all areas of public life and relations between individuals.
Signs of an authoritarian regime (authoritarianism) also lie in the fact that power is concentrated in the hands of an individual person or group, but freedom is preserved outside the political sphere to a relative extent. Such social-legal liberties in no way deny the characteristic properties of this type of government. The features of the totalitarian regime are the enhanced supervision by the power structures over all spheres of the state’s public life.
Comparative characteristics
|
Democratic regime (democracy) |
Presidential authority | |
| Parliamentary authority | Single party majority | |
| Party coalition | ||
| Consensus of regional or ethnic majority | ||
|
Antidemocratic regime (antidemocracy) |
Totalitarian power | Pre-totalitarianism |
| Post-totalitarianism | ||
| Authoritarian authority | Neototalitarianism | |
| Monarchy in less developed countries | ||
| Theocracy | ||
| Military rule | ||
| Personified board | ||
Characterization of anti-democratic regimes
An authoritarian state appears when power is concentrated in the hands of an individual or a group of individuals. Authoritarianism is often combined with dictatorship. In this regime, an opposition structure is impossible, but in the economic sphere, for example, in cultural or personal life, personal autonomy and some freedom of action remain.
Totalitarian power is formed when all areas of public life are controlled by the state monopolized power (individually by a person or a group of individuals), when there is a common worldview for all residents of the country. The absence of any dissent is created by a strong regulatory body, police persecution, coercion. Such anti-democratic regimes give rise to a non-initiative person who is prone to obedience on all social issues.
Totalitarian power
Totalitarianism is a regime of all-round rule, unlimited interference in the daily life of society, including existence in the context of its leadership and forced management. The concept itself appeared in the late twenties of the 20th century, when a certain part of political scientists tried to divide the socialist and democratic countries and find a clear understanding of socialist statehood.
Features of the totalitarian regime
1. The existence of a single, significant party, led by an impeccable (in the eyes of the people) leader, and in addition to this, the actual reunion of party and state structural elements. In other words, it can be called a "state party." In it, in the foreground in the hierarchical ladder sits the central apparatus of the party organization, and the state acts as a means of implementing the platform of the totalitarian system.
2. Centralization and monopolization of government. That is, in comparison with material, religious value concepts, political ones (obedience and loyalty to a totalitarian party) come forward and become fundamental. Under this regime, the border between state and non-state regions is lost (the country as a single collective). The entire life path of the population is subject to regulation, regardless of whether it has a personal (private) or public character. Authorities at all levels are formed by the method of bureaucracy and through closed information and non-information channels.
3. The unified power of a legitimate ideology, which through the media, the learning process, propaganda methods is imposed on the population as the only correct, true method of thinking. Here the emphasis is not on individual, but on “conciliar” values (nationality, race, etc.). The spiritual component of society is characterized by fanatical intolerance of dissent and “non-action, ” according to the rule “who is not with us is against us.”
4. The physical and psychological dictatorship, the existence of a police state regime, in which the main rule is based on the following: "only what is punished by the authorities is allowed, everything else is forbidden." To achieve it, ghettos and concentration camps are formed in which hard work, violence against people, suppression of the civil will to resist, and the mass destruction of an innocent population are used.
Communist and fascist anti-democratic regimes are also referred to this dictatorial way of governing.
Authoritarianism
An authoritarian state is a country with a structure characterized by the dictatorship of a single person with his own method of government. This is a “compromise solution” between the totalitarian and democratic regime, a transitional stage between them.
The authoritarian order is close enough to totalitarian governance on a political basis, and to a democratic one on an economic basis, that is, people who do not have political rights are endowed with the fullness of economic ones.
The main signs of an authoritarian regime
This type of anti-democratic government of the state has the following features:
- Power is characterized by unlimited, uncontrolled and centralized in the hands of a single person or group of persons. It can be a dictator, a military junta, etc.
- Potential and real emphasis on power influence. This regime may not use mass repressive actions and even enjoy sufficient recognition of the majority of the population. Nevertheless, the government can afford to take any steps in relation to its citizens in order to force them to obey.
- The monopolization of power and political life, the non-permissibility of the existence of opposition structures, the sole legal activity in society that is independent of anything. Such a condition does not affect the presence of an unlimited number of party organizations, as well as trade union and some other societies, but their activities are most strictly controlled and regulated by the authorities.
- The renewal of the cadres of leaders by the method of self-completion, rather than competition in the pre-election period, the absence of legal mechanisms for succession and transfer of power. Such anti-democratic regimes are often established through military coups and coercion.
- Power structures are engaged exclusively in ensuring personal security and order in society, although they are able to influence the priority areas of economic development, implement an active public policy without destroying the structure of their own market regulation.
The signs described above give reason to assert that authoritarian power is a method of government with flawed moralism: "Everything is allowed, except for politics."
Additional types of political regimes
Under the slave system, the following types of government were distinguished:
- despotic;
- theocratic;
- monarchical;
- aristocratic;
- democratic.
The feudal system, in turn, is divided into:
- military-police officer;
- democratic;
- clerical feudal;
- absolutist;
- "Enlightened" absolutist.
The bourgeois device, respectively, is divided into:
- democratic;
- fascist;
- military police officer;
- Bonapartist.
Classification of political regimes by S.A. Komarov
S. A. Komarov subdivides the regime of power of the people into:
- slaveholding;
- feudal;
- bourgeois;
- socialist democracy.
Anti-democratic regimes are divided by this policy into:
- totalitarian;
- fascist;
- autocratic.
The latter, in turn, is divided into the sole (despotism, tyranny, regime of sole power) and collective (oligarchy and aristocracy).
