Government

Of the world’s governments, the majority of nations have governments structured within the following primary models:

• Absolute monarchy
• Authoritarian
• Commonwealth
• Communist
• Confederacy
• Constitutional democracy
• Constitutional monarchy
• Democracy
• Democratic republic
• Dictatorship
• Emirate
• Federation
• Federal republic
• Islamic republic
• Marxism
• Monarchy
• Oligarch
• Parliamentary democracy
• Parliamentary government
• Parliamentary monarchy
• Presidential
• Socialism
• Sultanate
• Theocracy
• Totalitarian ¹

One in four people seeking to use a public service are forced to pay a bribe to receive access, according to the Global Corruption Barometer released by Transparency International.² Six in every ten people around the world cite their government as inadequately resisting or fighting corruption.³ The Middle East and North Africa had the lowest citizen ratings. Yemen, Madagascar, Ukraine, Gabon, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Moldova’s citizens report the lowest perceptions of their respective governments. Nations whose citizens reported the highest perceptions of their government’s ability to resist corruption are Thailand, Indonesia, Honduras, Guatemala, Botswana and Ecuador.⁴ Politically connected firms in Russia account for nearly 80 percent of market capitalization, and in the United Kingdom politically connected firms account for 40 percent of market capitalization.⁵ Lobbying expenses in the United States amount to $200,000 per legislator and rise each year.⁶ Over 50 percent of OECD executives admitted using their personal and familial contacts to garner public contracts in non-OECD countries.⁷ Over 108 million people were killed in wars throughout the twentieth century alone.⁸ In 2016, $1.686 trillion was spent on defense internationally. The United States spent $611 billion, more than three times that of China, whose budget was just $215 billion.⁹