Globalization[edit]

Main article: Political globalization

Political globalization began in the 20th century through intergovernmental
organizations and supranational unions. The League of Nations was founded after World War I,
and after World War II it was replaced by the United Nations. Various international treaties have
been signed through it. Regional integration has been pursued by the African Union, ASEAN,
the European Union, and Mercosur. International political institutions on the international level
include the International Criminal Court, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade
Organization.

Political science[edit]
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Main article: Political science

Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), from a detail of The School of

Athens, a fresco by Raphael. Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics secured the two Greek
philosophers as two of the most influential political philosophers.
The study of politics is called political science,[56] It comprises numerous subfields, namely
three: Comparative politics, international relations and political philosophy.[57] Political science is
related to, and draws upon, the fields
of economics, law, sociology, history, philosophy, geography, psychology, psychiatry, anthropolo
gy, and neurosciences.
Comparative politics is the science of comparison and teaching of different types of constitutions,
political actors, legislature and associated fields. International relations deals with the interaction
between nation-states as well as intergovernmental and transnational organizations. Political
philosophy is more concerned with contributions of various classical and contemporary thinkers
and philosophers.[58]
Political science is methodologically diverse and appropriates many methods originating
in psychology, social research, and cognitive neuroscience. Approaches
include positivism, interpretivism, rational choice theory, behavioralism, structuralism, post-
structuralism, realism, institutionalism, and pluralism. Political science, as one of the social
sciences, uses methods and techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary
sources such as historical documents and official records, secondary sources such as scholarly
journal articles, survey research, statistical analysis, case studies, experimental research, and
model building.

Political system[edit]
Main article: Political system
See also: Systems theory in political science

Map of European nations coloured by percentage of vote

governing party got in last election as of 2022 Systems

view of politics
The political system defines the process for making official government decisions. It is usually
compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems.
According to David Easton, "A political system can be designated as the interactions through
which values are authoritatively allocated for a society."[13] Each political system is embedded in a
society with its own political culture, and they in turn shape their societies through public policy.
The interactions between different political systems are the basis for global politics.
Forms of government[edit]

Legislatures are an important political institution. Pictured

is the Parliament of Finland.
Forms of government can be classified by several ways. In terms of the structure of power,
there are monarchies (including constitutional monarchies)
and republics (usually presidential, semi-presidential, or parliamentary).
The separation of powers describes the degree of horizontal integration between
the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, and other independent institutions.
Source of power[edit]
The source of power determines the difference between democracies, oligarchies,
and autocracies.
In a democracy, political legitimacy is based on popular sovereignty. Forms of democracy
include representative democracy, direct democracy, and demarchy. These are separated by the
way decisions are made, whether by elected representatives, referendums, or by citizen juries.
Democracies can be either republics or constitutional monarchies.
Oligarchy is a power structure where a minority rules. These may be in the form
of anocracy, aristocracy, ergatocracy, geniocracy, gerontocracy, kakistocracy, kleptocracy, merit
ocracy, noocracy, particracy, plutocracy, stratocracy, technocracy, theocracy, or timocracy.
Autocracies are either dictatorships (including military dictatorships) or absolute monarchies.

The pathway of regional integration or separation

Vertical integration[edit]
In terms of level of vertical integration, political systems can be divided into (from least to most
integrated) confederations, federations, and unitary states.
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of
partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal
government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as
well as the division of power between them and the central government, is typically
constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of either party, the
states or the federal political body. Federations were formed first in Switzerland, then in the
United States in 1776, in Canada in 1867 and in Germany in 1871 and in 1901, Australia.
Compared to a federation, a confederation has less centralized power.