Regimes and Ideologies

Politics is Fundamental

Political activity and governing are irreducible and controlling fundamentals in social life under peaceful conditions. However, the everyday realities of politics and governing have to be managed:

theoretically via ideologies;
organizationally via regimes;
practically via a ruling class.

Political Ideologies

Examples: liberalism, fascism, socialism, communism, anarchism

are doctrines or theories about organizing and changing society.

A society or its regime may or may not explicitly endorse the distribution of rights and duties (typically relating to wealth and power) of members of a society as theoretically required by the ideology supposedly in use.

Governing Regimes

Examples: monarchy, oligarchy, democracy, timocracy, tyranny.

are the vehicles or mechanisms by which a country may be governed. Regimes specify what sort of people are in government, how they are chosen, and how they conduct the work of government.

This may involve:

a move between different regimes (e.g. tyranny to oligarchy); or
a change of the people (or party) governing via a particular regime.

The Ruling Class

Examples: militocracy, plutocracy, theocracy, bureaucracy

are descriptions of the elites in society who actually call the shots. The ruling class are elites who look after themselves first and put the well-being of the mass of the population second. This class system traditionally persists through changes of regimes and ideologies and through the initial stages of political maturation.

Elites come from the military in Militocracies (e.g. Egypt, Thailand), always hierarchical..

Elites come from the priesthood in theocracies (e.g. Iran), typically hierarchical.

Elites are the wealthiest in society in Plutocracies (e.g. US, UK).
Economic-business elites, are typically diverse and linked via networks.

Elites hold high civil service positions in Bureaucracies (e.g. China). There are typically power-based hierarchies and networks.

Regimes, Ruling Classes, Ideologies and Politics Interact

History suggests that a particular type of regime or ruling class can choose to change its ideology, and the same ideology can be chosen by different types of regime or ruling class.

While regime change may occur as part of a change of ideology, the ruling class is unlikely to change.

Political science and political journalism commonly focus mostly on regimes and ideologies and their vicissitudes. However, the ruling class typically exerts control over the media and scholarship either via censorship or ownership.

The position taken here is that all such social phenomena are a result of political processes and a channeling mechanism, not the origin of politics itself.

THEE Note:Regimes/ideologies are taxonomically located within RL3-Change (3^rd Level of the Root Hierarchy), whereas Politics is found in
RL6-Purpose (6^th Level of the Root Hierarchy). For power-centred behaviour found in the ruling classes, see Interacting for Benefit.

Distinguish the State as a context.
Continue to the basics of ethical choice.

Originally posted: July 2009; Last updated: 27 Jan 2010. Amended: 13-Nov-2023.