Alright well the first thing that is important to note is that some terms, especially names of political parties, have very little actual meaning or a set definition. For instance, the two major political parties in the US are the Republican party and the Democratic party. A republican is somebody who supports the Republican party and a democrat is somebody who supports the Democratic party, but the names themselves don't really imply any political systems and have no relevance outside the US.
Most western countries (which forms the bulk of countries with a decent political system) are either constitutional monarchies or republics. A constitutional monarchy is a country who's head of state is a monarch (king/queen/etc.) who usually serves as a figurehead. They are pretty much the last vestiges of the Middle Ages in countries that used to have absolute monarchies (all power rests with the king/queen) and are popular in Europe and their colonies. Some examples of constitutional monarchies: UK, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, etc. A republic was originally a country where the power rested with the people rather than a monarch, these are usually countries that overthrew their monarchy. Some examples of republics: United States, France, Germany, Ireland, Russia, Italy, Mexico, etc.
Both these systems typically employ representative democracy. Since there are too many people in a country for everybody to vote on every issue (which would be a true or direct democracy), we break down the country into regions and elect people to represent us at a collective assembly. These elected officials are supposed to fight for the interests of the citizens in their political riding. There are many different ways of doing this, that's why some countries have presidents or prime ministers (or both) and other terms. This gets a little complicated and changes from country to country but the main point is that you elect somebody that represents your entire area and all its people at a specific government level (whether it be national, provincial/state, etc.)
Another popular term is a federation, a federation is a large body that unites many smaller "independent" entities under one country and a federal government. The United States is a good example, there are 50 autonomous states with their own state government united under the federal government. The federal government only has so much authority over these states (which unfortunately frequently causes some trouble). Russia and Mexico are other examples of federations. There is also the confederation, which is an even looser collection of sovereign states, like Switzerland.
Then there are all the wonky forms of government like military dictatorships and islamic republics (a theocracy) which are obviously piles of crap...
Now 99% of politics can be easily explained using the old left-wing/right-wing method. Left-wings are described as "liberal" and right-wings are described as "conservative". First you have to separate politics into two parts, social and economical. A socially liberal person will want lots of government social programs (welfare, healthcare, education, public housing, public transportation...) and very "liberal" laws. A social conservative will want the government to have as little social programs as possible so that taxes will be as low as possible, as well as more conservative (which unfortunately often means religious) laws. An economic liberal will want the government to intervene in the economy by modifying interest rates, taxing certain industries and subsidizing companies (or having government owned companies). An economic conservative will want the government to stay out of the economy and let the market play itself out (free market economics). A liberal can be described as a socialist (socialism is a very broad term which could use a thread on its own) and a conservative tends to be a capitalist (someone who wants little government intervention and all ownership in private hands).
There are many different ways to levy taxes. First of all there are different levels of government all looking for taxes. In Canada, that means federal, provincial and municipal governments. The municipal government gets most of its taxes from businesses and property taxes. Both the provincial and federal governments have sales taxes (which are sometimes combined like in BC and Ontario), that's taxes on anything you buy, and income taxes, which are a percentage of your paycheck. The percentage depends on how much you make, there are different tax brackets so that the more money you make, the more you get taxed. This goes from barely anything on a minimum wage salary to roughly 50% if you make +100k/year. There are tons of ways to get tax deductions though, especially if you're a student or if you have dependents (children or other people in your care). The governments also get lots of taxes off of industries and imports/exports.
I will follow up with a post on Canadian politics...
|
|
Bookmarks