The political system establishes how the government can be reached.
The set of elements that interact and are interrelated is called a system . The political , for its part, is associated with political activity : that linked to the administration of public issues and the management of the State.
The political system , in this way, is the organization that exists in a certain territory for the exercise of politics . Various agents , institutions and regulations intervene in this system that make up what is understood as political power.
How a political system works
Each political system determines the manner of access to the government (that is, to the administration of the State) and establishes the bases on which government activity is developed. These systems, therefore, are directly linked to the way the State is organized and to the Constitution.
The political system can be related to the form of State . One of the possible classifications of political system shows the following three alternatives: unitary, federal and socialist. Let's look at the three concepts in more detail, below.
Unitary, federal or socialist state
* Unitary : this type of political system consists of a single and centralized government, in which the internal divisions such as provinces or departments, among others typical of the State, are limited to the administrative level, that is, each of them has a ruler designated by the National Government to represent the Central Power.
Its Internal State is not autonomous nor does it have its own Powers (neither judicial nor legislative). Furthermore, it cannot dictate laws on its own, decide the amount of the budget or devise internal taxes, since in all cases it depends on the Central Power.
Monarchy is a form of government that can be defined by a political system.
* Federal : unlike the unitary political system, the federal system provides the internal divisions of the State with their own Powers (Legislative, Executive and Judicial), which are elected by the regional people. In any case, they must also respect the decisions of the National Government; For example, although each province has its own constitution, the laws set forth therein cannot conflict with national laws.
Other rights that internal divisions have in a federal political system are the possibility of having their own police force, creating their internal taxes and making decisions related to their budget.
* Socialist : in a socialist political system, it is society that has control, and for this it is organized as a whole, including its workforce and its means of production. This entails a level of collective planning that must take into account various factors, such as the economic and social level of the inhabitants.
Political system and form of government
The form of government is also determined by the political system. A territory can be organized as a republic (the head of state is elected to hold a public office) or a monarchy (the head of state is a person who inherits the office and holds it for life).
In turn, each of them is subdivided into different types. Within the republic we find the presidential, the semi-presidential, the parliamentary and the one-party; In the case of monarchy, there is the constitutional (also known as parliamentary ), the constitutional with active monarchs and the absolute. Other political systems belonging to this classification are States governed by military junta (such as Thailand, where the Government is made up only of authorities from the armed forces) and theocracy (which does not admit a division between religious and political power).
Let's look at an example of the functioning of a political system. In Argentina , the current political system establishes that the country is a republic (it is governed by the Constitution), organized on a federal basis (with provinces that enjoy a certain autonomy) and with representative democracy (the people govern through their representatives, who are elected in democratic elections).