Talk:List of countries by system of government

Qatar and Eswatini

Qatar's prime minister is appointed by the monarch. Eswatini, on the other hand, has a democratic legislature. --95.24.61.158 (talk) 05:00, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Kazakhstan's system of government

I'm genially surprised to see the listing for Kazakhstan. Because it's NOT a full-presidential system as its being falsely misinterpreted to everyone here. If we're going here by jurisdiction, then Kazakhstan is a semi-presidential republic with a prime minister, appointed by the president with parliamentary approval, serving as the head of government and has been so according to its constitution as per Article 44 and 56. And I'm not ruling out also Belarus and Gabon which for some reason are being written as "exceptions" despite having a separate head of governments too, yet they're marked as presidential republics. I wanted to point out this really bad flaw in this article and if nothing gets fixed as soon as possible I'm doing it myself. ShadZ01 (talk) 09:07, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Angola

Looking at Angola's system of governance, it seems to me to more closely resemble South Africa's, Guyana's, or Bostwana's system of government than other countries listed as "Presidential Republics", like the USA or Turkey. Reading about the 2022 Angolan general election or the page about the politics of the country seems to me to point towards it being a "green" republic with a head of state directly or indirectly elected by the legislature. What are people's thoughts on this? GlowstoneUnknown (talk) 11:32, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Angolan president isn't elected by legislature but simultaneously elected with legislature.

Therefore it's presidential republic, not a parliamentary one. Svito3 (talk) 10:27, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Actually it's the same as Guyana, where largest party's designated candidate for president wins. Svito3 (talk) 10:45, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

There 3 systems combining heads of state and heads of government (executive presidency):

• Presidential republics: president elected independently from legislature, government doesn't need confidence of parliament.
• Parliamentary republics with an executive presidency: government needs confidence of parliament to remain in office.
• Assembly-independent republics: president elected by legislature, government doesn't need confidence of parliament.

But there is also double simultaneous vote which links presidential and parliamentary candidates in elections, which is used by some presidential republics (Angola, Bolivia, Uruguay) and parliamentary republics with an executive presidency (Botswana, Guyana).

I have fixed an article by adding notes. Hopefully it's more clear now. Svito3 (talk) 22:28, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Green republic category

I moved green republics out of "Parliamentary republics" category, because they're not all parliamentary, but new category "Republics with an executive head of state" should include presidential republics.

For comparison with Duverger's systems: https://doi.org/10.1057%2Fpalgrave.fp.8200087

Chief executive survival	Chief executive origin
	From assembly majority	From electorate
Fused with assembly majority	Parliamentary with ceremonial president   Parliamentary with executive president (Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, South Africa)   Constitutional monarchy	Elected prime-ministerial (Botswana, Guyana)
Separate from assembly majority	Assembly-independent (Micronesia, Suriname, Switzerland)	Presidential

Highlighted cells, top left and bottom right are pure systems. Non-highlighted cells are true hybrids.

All these systems are single executive systems. Distinction between red, orange, and green is whether ceremonial head of state is elected ceremonial, unelected ceremonial, or parliamentary executive. This seems to be less important distinction than origin and survival of chief executive. Instead I think categories could be following (note 2 new colors for true hybrids split from green):

Parliamentary systems:

  Constitutional monarchy

  Parliamentary republic with a ceremonial president

  Parliamentary republic with an executive president

Presidential system:

  Presidential republic

Hybrid systems:

  Semi-presidential republic

  Semi-constitutional monarchy

  Assembly-independent republic

  Elected prime-ministerial republic

Other systems:

  One-party state

  Absolute monarchy

  Military junta

  Provisional government

Svito3 (talk) 17:16, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

I think this is a nice change, but I think some of the colors as a little too similar. Especially on the list, where the prime ministerial republic and the provisional government look almost identical. Is there another possible color we could use for it? ICommandeth (talk) 21:01, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. I think we should drop the table. Its size of more than half an article and repeats same thing said in the article but multiple times and generally eye sore with all the colors. Svito3 (talk) 08:48, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

I have posted colorblind version at Template talk:Systems of government#Untitled. Svito3 (talk) 17:38, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

Iran as a "monarchy" and elected prime-ministerial republics

I've spotted many, many sweeping changes to this page lately.

I take genuine issue with the description of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a de facto monarchy. The Supreme Leader, while elected for life by a council of experts, does not use any monarchial titles or styles. This description ignores the fact that Iran explicitly describes itself as a republic and has an elected President. We don't refer to Taliban Afghanistan as a monarchy either, even though that country is similarly led by religious leaders who serve for life. I would personally argue in favour of removing this passage entirely.

I'm also curious which sources corroborate the existence of the "elected prime-ministerial republic" that you categorize Guyana and Botswana as (personally I think that "elected prime-ministerial republic" is an oxymoronic and misleading title, since prime ministers, if they even exist in such states, are politicially irrelevant, unlike in actual prime-ministerial systems like pre-2001 Israel), and why we should separate them from parliamentary republics with an executive presidency – especially since we don't make a genuine distinction in regular parliamentary republics either. The ceremonial president of Finland is elected and the one of Germany is not, but we still categorize both of them simply as parliamentary republics.

Overall, while I appreciate the effort that went into reworking this page and map (even if unilaterally), I feel that much of it might not be constructive. LVDP01 (talk) 20:24, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

A monarch is defined as a head of state for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. Iran fits this definition perfectly with its Supreme Leader. Supreme Leader is the head of state(not the president) and has considerable powers, although he personally may not use them (both characteristic of semi-constitutional monarchs). Even though president is elected, Supreme Leader has the power to dismiss president. If we dive even further Supreme Leader is elected by and can be dismissed by separate elected chamber, this doesn't ivalidate my claim it's a monarchy though as many monarchies can be theoretically dismissed by an elected body. Only reason Taliban isn't classified as a monarchy yet is because it's a provisional government, monarchy or republic being irrelevant distinction, tho these categories don't seem to be mutually exclusive, exhaustive, or useful anymore.

On the issue of an elected prime-ministerial republic (also described as semi-parliamentary system), is described on https://doi.org/10.1057%2Fpalgrave.fp.8200087 page 3 figure 1. I recreated the table and discussed it in the section above and don't feel like repeating myself. Parliamentary republics with an executive president, assembly-independent and elected-prime-ministerial systems function exactly like equivalent systems with ceremonial head of state, you can think of them as having no head of state at all, but their function to be carried by functionally-prime-minister-named-president. Classification is primarily concerned where head of government(chief executive) power originates from. And it's only parliamentary system if chief executive is both elected by legislature and is accountable to legislature(meaning legislature can remove them with a simple majority). Assembly-independent and elected prime-ministerial only satisfy one of these criteria. In parliamentary republics with ceremonial presidency both are satisfied, and method of election of head of state is irrelevant as they aren't chief executive, unlike in parliamentary republics with an executive president. Svito3 (talk) 07:04, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

1. Botswana is NOT a semi-parliamentary republic. We do not directly elect our President, in any way shape or form. The chief executive (president) is elected by the National Assembly and the chief executive's survival is fused with the assembly majority, and can therfore be removed through a motion of no confidence; the president is elected by the legislature AND their survival depends on whether or not the legislature has confidence in the president's government. The President of Botswana is unusual among heads of state of countries with a parliamentary system in that they are also the head of government, with executive powers. Making Botswana a parliamentary republic with an executive presidency. Until you provide (the phantasmic) proof that Botswana is a semi-parliamentary republic, your edits will stand reverted.
2. As for Guyana, the President of Guyana is not directly elected by the citizenry as well. A characteristic of Duverger's semi-parliamentarism is that the chief-executive is elected by the electorate. Guyana's president, like Botswana's is elected by the National Assembly and serves as both head of state and of government. A motion of no confidence against the President comes at the expense of the legislature's survival i.e., once the National Assembly has no confidence in the government (President and Cabinet), snap elections must be held soon after as was the case with the 2020 Guyanese general election after the motion of no confidence against David A. Granger. From the Guyanese constitution:

   6. The Cabinet including the President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.
   7. Notwithstanding its defeat, the Government shall remain in office and shall hold an election within three months, or such longer period as the National Assembly shall by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members of the National Assembly determine, and shall resign after the President takes the oath of office following the election.

   — CHAPTER X. THE EXECUTIVE,§ 106 parts 6 & 7., Constitution of Guyana

3. This makes both Guyana and Botswana parliamentary republics with an executive presidency i.e., countries with a combined head of state and head of government in the form of an executive president who is elected by the legislature who must maintain the confidence of the legislature to remain in office (though in Guyana's case snap elections are mandated after a vote of no confidence). Guyana was also weirdly categorised as an assembly-independent republic on Wikipedia not so long ago but that isn't true either for the sole reason that the executive and its chief depends on the legislature's confidence in it. As @LVDP01 correctly pointed out, there has been only one country with Duverger's semi-parliamentarism and that was Israel for a brief period of time before they abolished it in 2001.

Aficionado538 (talk) 22:50, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

I figured as much. Thank you for your taking the time to type all this out.

I also disagree with referring to Guyana and Botswana as semi-parliamentary because I regard such terminology confusing. I understand semi-parliamentarianism to primarily refer to systems where only part of the legislature can vote no confidence against the government, such as Australia's Washminster system; or the more hypothetical subtype (which to my knowledge has never been used before) where voting no confidence is reserved for a confidence chamber that is separate/independent from the legislature, and cannot pass legislation in return. The other sub-type, where the head of government is directly elected, is also known as the prime-ministerial system, which I far prefer as it avoids any ambiguity with the system where the government only depends on part of the legislature to remain in office.

@Aficionado538: I do have a question. While I fully agree with most of what you have said, I do remember reading that the presidents of Botswana and Guyana are elected simultaneously with the legislature through double simultaneous vote, which I understand means that the president and legislature are simultaneously elected by voters through a single vote cast on a party. But according to you, the president of Botswana is not directly elected. As you live in Botswana, I was wondering if you could explain to me how Botswana's DSV works, so that I can obtain a more complete (and accurate) picture of the situation. Thank you! LVDP01 (talk) 11:52, 14 April 2024 (UTC)

Table was removed

I have removed the table because it doesn't conform to MOS:TABLES. There are other issues like table being pre-filled with templates where you need to specify a color to fill the table columns. It doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than just having a table in the article for the sake of it. Svito3 (talk) 14:16, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

In my opinion the old table was better. Could you clarify which part of MOS:TABLES it didn't conform to? Thanks. '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk|contribs) 12:05, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

Reasons:

• Tables should be used only when appropriate; sometimes the information in a table may be better presented as prose paragraphs or as an embedded list. Tables can also make a page much more complicated and difficult to edit, especially if some of the more complex forms of table coding are used;
• MOS:COLOR: avoid creating accessibility problems for color-blind as well as normal-vision readers.

In my opinion information on this page can't be appropriately presented as a table without repeating the same information that is already presented in appropriate and recommended form. Table needlessly takes more than half of vertical space of the actual article doubling its size and making it hard to read. Svito3 (talk) 12:50, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

In that case, I agree with your removal of the table. Thank you for explaining! '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk|contribs) 13:33, 13 April 2024 (UTC)