List of countries by system of government
This is a list of countries categorized by system of government currently in use.
Communist state
Constitutional democracy
Constitutional monarchy
- Antigua and Barbuda: constitutional monarchy with UK-style parliament
- Bahrain: constitutional hereditary monarchy
- Belgium: federal parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarch
- Cambodia: multiparty democracy under a constitutional monarchy established in September 1993
- Denmark: constitutional monarchy
- Grenada: constitutional monarchy with Westminster-style parliament
- Japan: constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government
- Jordan: constitutional monarchy
- Kuwait: nominal constitutional monarchy
- Lesotho: parliamentary constitutional monarchy
- Liechtenstein: hereditary constitutional monarchy on a democratic and parliamentary basis
- Luxembourg: constitutional monarchy
- Malaysia: constitutional monarchy
note: Malaya (what is now Peninsular Malaysia) formed 31 August 1957; Federation of Malaysia (Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore) formed 9 July 1963 (Singapore left the Federation on 9 August 1965); nominally headed by the paramount ruler and a bicameral Parliament consisting of a nonelected upper house and an elected lower house; all of the Peninsular Malaysian states have hereditary rulers except Melaka and Penang; Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia have governors appointed by the Malaysian Government; powers of state governments are limited by the federal constitution; under the terms of federation, Sabah and Sarawak retain certain constitutional prerogatives (e.g., the right to maintain their own immigration controls); Sabah - currently holds 20 seats in House of Representatives and will hold 25 seats after the next election; Sarawak holds 28 seats in House of Representatives
- Monaco: constitutional monarchy
- Morocco: constitutional monarchy
- Netherlands: constitutional monarchy
- Norway: constitutional monarchy
- Papua New Guinea: constitutional monarchy with parliamentary democracy
- Saint Kitts and Nevis: constitutional monarchy with Westminster-style parliament
- Samoa: constitutional monarchy under native chief
- Spain: parliamentary monarchy
- Sweden: constitutional monarchy
- Thailand: constitutional monarchy
- Tonga: hereditary constitutional monarchy
- Tuvalu: constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy; began debating republic status in 1992
- United Kingdom: constitutional monarchy
Constitutional republic
Federal republic
Monarchy
Parliamentary democracy
- Andorra: parliamentary democracy (since March 1993) that retains as its chiefs of state a coprincipality; the two princes are the president of France and bishop of Seo de Urgel, Spain, who are represented locally by coprinces' representatives
- Aruba: parliamentary democracy
- The Bahamas: constitutional parliamentary democracy
- Bangladesh: parliamentary democracy
- Barbados: parliamentary democracy; independent sovereign state within the Commonwealth
- Belize: parliamentary democracy
- Bermuda: parliamentary British overseas territory with internal self-government
- Bulgaria: parliamentary democracy
- Canada: confederation with parliamentary democracy
- Cook Islands: self-governing parliamentary democracy
- Croatia: presidential/parliamentary democracy
- Czech Republic: parliamentary democracy
- Dominica: parliamentary democracy; republic within the Commonwealth
- Greenland: parliamentary democracy within a constitutional monarchy
- Hungary: parliamentary democracy
- Israel: parliamentary democracy
- Latvia: parliamentary democracy
- Lithuania: parliamentary democracy
- Jamaica: constitutional parliamentary democracy
- Republic of Macedonia: parliamentary democracy
- Isle of Man: parliamentary democracy
- Mauritius: parliamentary democracy
- Mongolia: parliamentary
- Nepal: parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy
- Netherlands Antilles: parliamentary
- New Zealand: parliamentary democracy
- Niue: self-governing parliamentary democracy
- Portugal: parliamentary democracy
- Saint Lucia: Westminster-style parliamentary democracy
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: parliamentary democracy; independent sovereign state within the Commonwealth
- Slovakia: parliamentary democracy
- Slovenia: parliamentary democratic republic
- Solomon Islands: parliamentary democracy tending toward anarchy
- Trinidad and Tobago: parliamentary democracy
- Turkey: republican parliamentary democracy
- Zimbabwe: parliamentary democracy
Parliamentary republic
- Botswana: parliamentary republic
- Burkina Faso: parliamentary republic
- Estonia: parliamentary republic
- Greece: parliamentary republic; monarchy rejected by referendum 8 December 1974
- Singapore: parliamentary republic
- Vanuatu: parliamentary republic
Republic
Other democracies
- Albania: emerging democracy
- Australia: democratic, federal-state system recognizing the British monarch as sovereign
- Dominican Republic: representative democracy
- Hong Kong: limited democracy
- Macau: limited democracy
- Malawi: multiparty democracy
- Taiwan: multiparty democratic regime headed by popularly-elected president and unicameral legislature
Transitional governments
- Afghanistan: transitional
- Democratic Republic of the Congo: dictatorship; presumably undergoing a transition to representative government
- Eritrea: transitional government
note: following a successful referendum on independence for the Autonomous Region of Eritrea on 23-25 April 1993, a National Assembly, composed entirely of the People's Front for Democracy and Justice or PFDJ, was established as a transitional legislature; a Constitutional Commission was also established to draft a constitution; Isaias Afworki was elected president by the transitional legislature; the constitution, ratified in May 1997, did not enter into effect, pending parliamentary and presidential elections; parliamentary elections had been scheduled in December 2001, but were postponed indefinitely; currently the sole legal party is the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ)
- Iraq: in transition following April 2003 defeat of Saddam Husayn regime by US-led coalition
- Nigeria: republic transitioning from military to civilian rule
- Somalia: no permanent national government; transitional, parliamentary national government
- Togo: republic under transition to multiparty democratic rule
Other governments
- Brunei: constitutional sultanate
- Burma: military regime
- Cayman Islands: British crown colony
- Haiti: elected government
- Iran: theocratic republic
- Libya: Jamahiriya (a state of the masses) in theory, governed by the populace through local councils; in fact, a military dictatorship
- Marshall Islands: constitutional government in free association with the US; the Compact of Free Association entered into force 21 October 1986
- Federated States of Micronesia: constitutional government in free association with the US; the Compact of Free Association entered into force 3 November 1986; economic provisions of the Compact are being renegotiated
- Northern Mariana Islands: commonwealth; self-governing with locally elected governor, lieutenant governor, and legislature
- Palau: constitutional government in free association with the US; the Compact of Free Association entered into force 1 October 1994
- Puerto Rico: commonwealth
- Sudan: authoritarian regime - ruling military junta took power in 1989; government is run by an alliance of the military and the National Congress Party (NCP), formerly the National Islamic Front (NIF), which espouses an Islamist platform
- Vatican City: ecclesiastical
- Western Sahara: legal status of territory and issue of sovereignty unresolved; territory contested by Morocco and Polisario Front (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro), which in February 1976 formally proclaimed a government-in-exile of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), led by President Mohamed Abdelaziz; territory partitioned between Morocco and Mauritania in April 1976, with Morocco acquiring northern two-thirds; Mauritania, under pressure from Polisario guerrillas, abandoned all claims to its portion in August 1979; Morocco moved to occupy that sector shortly thereafter and has since asserted administrative control; the Polisario's government-in-exile was seated as an OAU member in 1984; guerrilla activities continued sporadically, until a UN-monitored cease-fire was implemented 6 September 1991
This list may be subject to debate. Some countries may fall into more than one category.
