Forms of Government

It has been suggested that every government which has ever existed has been a prime example of kakistocracy, or the rule of the worst, but this list of 169 different types of government suggests that that might be a bit too simplistic. Each of the following words indicates a form of government or type of leadership by a certain kind of person or institution. Everyone seems to want to get in on this rulership gig, from saints and mothers to beggars and prostitutes. Note the difference between the suffix 'archy', meaning 'rulership', and 'cracy', meaning 'power', which both come from Greek roots. 

1. acracy         government by none; anarchy
2. adhocracy   government in an unstructured fashion
3. albocracy     government by white people
4. anarchy      government by none
5. androcracy       government by men
6. anemocracy   government by the wind or by whim
7. angelocracy   government by angels
8. antarchy     opposition to government; anarchy
9. argentocracy   government by money
10. aristarchy   government by the best
11. aristocracy   government by the nobility
12. arithmocracy   government by simple majority
13. autarchy     government by an absolute ruler
14. autocracy   government by one individual
15. barbarocracy   government by barbarians
16. beerocracy   government by brewers or brewing interests
17. bestiocracy   rule by beasts
18. biarchy     government by two people; diarchy
19. binarchy     government by two people; diarchy
20. bureaucracy   government by civil servants
21. cannonarchy   government by superior firepower or by cannons
22. capelocracy   government by shopkeepers
23. chiliarchy     government by one thousand people
24. chirocracy   government by physical force
25. chromatocracy government by rulers of a particular skin colour
26. chrysoaristocracy government by the wealthy; plutocracy
27. chrysocracy   government by the wealthy; plutocracy
28. corpocracy   government by corporate bureaucrats
29. cosmarchy   rulership over the entire world, esp. by the devil
30. cottonocracy   government by those involved in the cotton trade
31. cryptarchy   secret rulership
32. decadarchy   government by ten individuals; decarchy
33. decarchy     government by ten individuals
34. demarchy   government by the people; popular government
35. democracy   government by the people
36. demonarchy   government by a demon
37. demonocracy   government by demons or evil forces
38. despotocracy   government by despots or tyrants
39. diabolocracy   government by the Devil
40. diarchy     government by two people
41. dinarchy     government by two people; diarchy
42. dodecarchy   government by twelve people
43. doulocracy   government by slaves
44. duarchy     government by two people; diarchy
45. dulocracy     government by slaves; doulocracy
46. dyarchy     government by two people; diarchy
47. ecclesiarchy   government by clerics or ecclesiastical authorities
48. endarchy     centralised government
49. ergatocracy   government by the workers or the working class
50. ethnarchy   government over an ethnic group
51. ethnocracy   government by an ethnic group or race
52. exarchy     government by bishops
53. foolocracy   government by fools
54. gerontocracy   government by the aged
55. gunarchy     government by women; gynarchy
56. gymnasiarchy   government over a school or academy
57. gynaecocracy   government by women; gynarchy
58. gynarchy     government by women
59. gynocracy   government by women; gynarchy
60. hagiarchy   government by saints or holy persons
61. hagiocracy   government by holy men
62. hamarchy   government by a cooperative body of parts
63. hecatarchy   government by one hundred people; hecatontarchy
64. hecatontarchy   government by one hundred people
65. hendecarchy   government by eleven people
66. heptarchy   government by seven people
67. heroarchy   government by heroes
68. hetaerocracy   government by paramours
69. heterarchy   government by a foreign ruler
70. hierarchy     government by a ranked body; government by priests
71. hierocracy   government by priests or religious ministers
72. hipparchy   rule or control of horses
73. hoplarchy   government by the military
74. hyperanarchy   condition of extreme anarchy
75. hyperarchy   excessive government
76. iatrarchy     government by physicians
77. idiocracy     personal rule; self-rule
78. infantocracy   government by an infant
79. isocracy     equal political power
80. jesuitocracy   government by Jesuits
81. juntocracy   government by a junta
82. kakistocracy   government by the worst
83. kleptocracy   government by thieves
84. kritarchy     government by judges
85. landocracy   government by the propertied class; timocracy
86. logocracy     government of words
87. matriarchy   government by women or mothers
88. meritocracy   government by the meritorious
89. merocracy   government by a part of the citizenry
90. mesocracy   government by the middle classes
91. metrocracy   government by mothers or women; matriarchy
92. millionocracy   government by millionaires
93. millocracy   government by mill owners
94. mobocracy   government by mobs or crowds
95. monarchy   government by one individual
96. moneyocracy   government by the monied classes
97. monocracy   government by one individual
98. myriarchy   government by ten thousand individuals
99. narcokleptocracy government by those who profit from trade in illegal drugs
100. navarchy     rulership over the seas
101. neocracy     government by new or inexperienced rulers
102. nomocracy   government based on legal system; rule of law
103. ochlocracy   government by mobs
104. octarchy     government by eight people
105. oligarchy     government by the few
106. paedarchy   government by children
107. paedocracy   government by children; paedarchy
108. panarchy     universal rule or dominion
109. pantarchy   government by all the people; world government
110. pantisocracy   government by all equally
111. paparchy     government by the pope
112. papyrocracy   government by newspapers or literature
113. parsonarchy   government by parsons
114. partocracy   government by a single unopposed political party
115. patriarchy   government by men or fathers
116. pedantocracy   government by pedants or strict rule-bound scholars
117. pentarchy   government by five individuals
118. phallocracy   government by men
119. philosophocracy government by philosophers
120. phylarchy     government by a specific class or tribe
121. physiocracy   government according to natural laws or principles
122. pigmentocracy government by those of one skin colour
123. plantocracy   government by plantation owners
124. plousiocracy   government by the wealthy; plutocracy
125. plutarchy     government by the wealthy; plutocracy
126. plutocracy   government by the wealthy
127. polarchy     government by many people; polyarchy
128. policeocracy   government by police
129. pollarchy     government by the multitude or a mob; ochlocracy
130. polyarchy     government by many people
131. polycracy     government by many rulers; polyarchy
132. popocracy   government by populists
133. pornocracy   government by harlots
134. prophetocracy   government by a prophet
135. psephocracy   government resulting from election by ballot
136. ptochocracy   government by beggars or paupers; wholesale pauperization
137. punditocracy   government by political pundits
138. quangocracy   rule of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations
139. rotocracy     government by those who control rotten boroughs
140. septarchy     government by seven rulers; heptarchy
141. shopocracy       government by shopkeepers
142. slavocracy   government by slave-owners
143. snobocracy   government by snobs
144. sociocracy   government by society as a whole
145. squarsonocracy government by landholding clergymen
146. squatterarchy   government by squatters; squattocracy
147. squattocracy   government by squatters
148. squirearchy   government by squires
149. squirocracy   government by squires; squirearchy
150. statocracy   government by the state alone
151. stratarchy   rulership over an army
152. stratocracy   military rule or despotism
153. strumpetocracy government by strumpets
154. synarchy     joint sovereignty
155. technocracy      government by technical experts
156. tetradarchy   government by four people; tetrarchy
157. tetrarchy     government by four people
158. thalassiarchy   sovereignty of the seas; thalassocracy
159. thalassocracy   sovereignty of the seas
160. thearchy     rule by a god or gods; body of divine rulers
161. theatrocracy   goverment by gathered assemblies of citizens
162. theocracy   government by priests or by religious law
163. timarchy     government by the propertied class; timocracy
164. timocracy     government by the propertied class
165. triarchy     government by three people
166. tritarchy     government by three people; triarchy
167. tritheocracy   government by three gods
168. whiggarchy   government by Whigs
169. xenocracy   government by a body of foreigners

Essentials of Education

• The intellectuals will accomplish nothing if they fail to integrate themselves with the workers and peasants.
• The educational policy must cultivate a firm and correct political orientation, an industrious and simple style of work, and flexible strategy and tactics. 
• Educational policy must enable everyone who receives an education to develop morally, intellectually and physically and become a worker with both socialist consciousness and culture.
• Students and intellectuals should study their specialized subjects and must make progress both ideologically and politically, which means that they should study current events and politics. 
• Not to have a correct political point of view is like having no soul.
• People have to learn while teaching while serving as teachers. 
• To be a good teacher, one must first be a good pupil. 
• There are many things which cannot be learned from books alone; one must learn from those engaged in production, from the workers, from the poor and lower middle peasants etc.
• Education must serve proletarian politics and must be combined with productive labour. 
• The working people should master knowledge and the intellectuals should become habituated to manual labour.
• Destruction means criticism and repudiation. It involves reasoning things out, which is construction. There is no construction without destruction.
• While students main task is to study, they should in addition to their studies, participate in other things like industrial work, farming and military affairs. 
• The domination of schools by bourgeois intellectuals should by no means be allowed to continue.

Why majority rule?

• Democracy in its true sense is rule by people. 
• The only way a government can function, and the only way a people's voice can be expressed to effect a practicable control of government, is through a process in which decisions are made by the majority. This is not a perfect way of controlling government, but the alternatives -decisions made by a minority, or by one person are even worse and are the source of great evil. To be just, majority decisions must be in the best interest of all the people, not just one faction.
• The will of the majority honestly expressed should give law.
• Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent.
• The fundamental principle is that the will of the majority is to prevail.
• If we are faithful to our country, in the decisions of the majority, and the nation moves in mass in the same direction.
• Where the law of the majority ceases to be acknowledged, there government ends, the law of the strongest takes its place.
• A nation ceases to be republic, when the will of the majority ceases to be the law.
• If the avenue of the expression of the voice of the whole people be shut, we shall go on in the endless circle of oppression, rebellion, reformation; and oppression, rebellion, reformation again; and so on forever.
• No good measure was ever proposed which, if duly pursued, failed to prevail in the end.
• Against a majority we cannot effect by force. Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments.
• If the measures which have been pursued are approved by the majority, it is the duty of the minority to acquiesce and conform.
• Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.
• This sacred principle that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
• The majority oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.
• Great innovations should not be forced on a slender majority.
• A geographical division ... is a most fatal of all divisions, as no authority will submit to be governed by a majority acting merely on a geographical principle.

My View:

We all know that majority is not always right. The minority is often right and the majority, who are usually conservative by nature and with backward, feudal mindsets, often wrong. In India the majority of people are casteist, communal and superstitious and hence no rapid progress is possible. India requires scientific thinking and massive investments to eradicate poverty, unemployment, lack of healthcare and good education, etc. But our politics under the present parliamentary system of democracy is largely based on caste and communal vote banks and rarely people elect merit candidates giving scope to criminals entering legislatures. Most of our present politicians are selfish, greedy and unpatriotic, with no love for people, but are experts in manipulating vote banks and polarizing the people on caste and communal lines. Casteism and communalism are feudal forces obstructing our nation's progress. Unless we make large investments in education and awareness creation, people will not be able to overcome these feudal forces and see reason in electing genuinely good people. Instead of going for drastic measures for rapid development which would confuse poorer & uneducated masses and make them scary & skeptical, we should improve upon existing systems with giant steps with transparency of process and building confidence of people. Remember systems never fail; It is people who fail them.

US National debt is now close to $20 trillion

Due to underlying structural problems, US government spending is rising on automatic pilot.

• Eighty percent of the spending increase over the next 10 years will go for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid (the “entitlements”) and interest on the national debt, unless entitlement programs are altered to lengthen their lifespans.
• Right now, U.S. government debt is equal to about 77 percent of the gross national product (GNP), the total annual output of U.S. goods and services.
• The figure could to rise to 89 percent by 2027, and to 145 percent of GNP 30 years from now.
• Interest costs are likely to rise from $270 billion this year to $768 billion in 2027. Absent reform, things would get worse from there. Interest payments would rise from 1.4 percent of the economy (GDP) last year to 5.8 percent in 2046.
• As interest costs rise, an aging population and rising health care costs will further increase pressure on the federal budget, making it increasingly difficult to fund other important national priorities, from defense to medical research. 
• Increased risk of a fiscal crisis could drive interest rates even higher. 
• A steadily rising debt is unsustainable, and that aging of the population, rising health care costs, and increasing interest costs will continue to drive up the debt with no end in sight, assuming no changes in American laws.
• It isn’t exclusively a spending problem but changes need to take place on the revenue side as well.
• Under the current political situation, the debt is a bipartisan problem and requires bipartisan solutions. Neither party wants to go it alone on cutting important programs and boosting tax revenues.
• To avoid such risks to economy and the nation’s future, elected officials must pursue broad fiscal reforms soon. Interest costs are not something that lawmakers and the president can control directly. Avoiding a dangerous upward spiral in those costs in the future will require greater fiscal discipline throughout the federal budget.
• The focus should be on future generations. Younger people have the most at stake in what direction the national debt chart takes.
• These are solvable problems that need to adjust national policies and build sustainable operations.
• Steep tax cuts without spending reductions might stimulate the economy, but they would result in further burgeoning of the national debt.  
• The longer Washington continues to procrastinate on budget reforms, the more taxpayers today and in the future can expect to pay more just to service the growing federal debt. That’s not the path to prosperity.

My View:
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse. 
It is the responsibility of the Government to reduce expenditure, increase revenues and bring down national debt to manageable levels. Otherwise they will lose credibility, ratings will go down, and end up borrowing at higher interest rates to settle lower interest debts due for repayment and end up in vicious cycle that could result in payment defaults. Unless reformed, US national debt will continue to rise and USA will be permanently trapped in ever increasing national debt, forever.

Rio Olympics 2016 - Billions wasted

• The 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil cost Brazilian taxpayers $4.6 billion, conservative estimates show. But once related expenses covered by the Brazilian government are factored in, the overall costs hit the $12 billion mark.
• Prior to the Olympics, the Brazilian government had already spent $12 billion on infrastructure. Stadiums and urban projects designed to ensure the country was ready for the sports event were built, but aside from the scheduled 2014 & 2016 events, there seemed to be little to no demand for such public investments prompting the country that the expenses were not worth the trouble.
• These structures are left to rot symbolizing government waste, not only because the investments weren’t meant to stand the test of time, but also because the Brazilian government’s lack of concern for the taxpayer.
• The government ignored the economic realities of the country, betting on inflation and cronyism in order to throw an unforgettable party.
• Due to the government’s lavish spending prior to the World Cup and Summer Olympics, led to a move that provoked chaos among consumers simply because banks were forced to put money into circulation that wasn’t backed by anything.
• As more cash was put into circulation by the banks and the federal government due to the World Cup and Olympics-related expenses, the value of Brazilian money tanked. To the consumer, that translated into lower purchasing power, making it more difficult for the poor to stock their pantries. 
• With the government’s out of hand expenses Brazilian people suffered because the government robbed them of their money’s purchasing power. 
• Now that the structures built for the world to see are rotting away, the low-income Brazilian continues to suffer. The only solution to this matter is to unleash currency control from the hands of the federal government. Only then will the federal government be powerless in creating more debt and inflation, keeping it from playing with the Brazilian taxpayer’s hard-earned money.

My View:

Greece has spent £7 billion, twice their projected budget, for 2004 Olympics. Ten years later now, these sports venues in Athens lie empty, completely unused and decaying. Greece hit by the global financial crisis and with no real post-games plan, the prestigious venues were abandoned. Greece has seen post Olympic era as a decade of lost opportunities. No country, with weak fundamentals, should embark on such ambitious spending risking economic collapse, for partying and fun. Former Olympic Greek sporting hero turned Socialist member of Parliament Pyrros Dimas said 'We didn't take advantage of this dynamic that we got in 2004, We simply made the biggest mistake in our history: We switched off, locked up the stadiums, let them fall to pieces, and everything finished there.' This 8.5 billion euros is a drop in the ocean of the country's subsequent 320 billion-euro debt, which spun out of control after 2008.

The Gold Standard is Right

• Gold is the primary global currency that has an intrinsic value. Credit instruments and fiat currency depend on the credit worthiness and signature of a counter party. No one refuses gold as payment to discharge an obligation. It has always been that way. No one questions its value, first coined in Asia Minor in 600 BC.
• The gold standard was operating at its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a period of extraordinary global prosperity, characterized by firming productivity growth and very little inflation. 
• Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. That is the reason for the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard.
• World War I disabled the fixed exchange rate parities.With different degree of war and economic destruction from country to country, the desire to return to pre-war exchange parities was wholly unrealistic. It wasn’t the gold standard that failed; it was politics.

• As per the above chart, bottom 90% of US earners income was far more than top 1% earners until Nixon ended the US Gold Standard, in August 1971, unleashing an unprecedented increase in US debt, and the stagnation of real incomes and net worth for all but the "top 1% of earners." 
• It is no wonder that the 1% hates the gold standard, including their protectors in the developed market central banking system, their economist lackeys, their purchased politicians and their captured media outlets, the topic of a return to a gold standard is the biggest threat conceivable.
• Everything changed a few decades later in the late 1980s onwards, instead of applying the above wisdom, central bank intervening in every crisis, creating new currency with abandon, and debt soared. Prevention of regulation of credit default swaps and other derivatives had nearly blew up the system in 2008.
• The growth has continued despite adversity, is due to the new financial instruments unbundling risks. These instruments enhance the ability to differentiate risk and allocate it to those investors most able and willing to take it. The product and asset price signals enable entrepreneurs to finely allocate real capital facilities to produce those goods and services most valued by consumers, a process that has undoubtedly improved national productivity growth and standards of living.
• In the aftermath of the dot com crisis interest rate cuts to near-zero in the early 2000s, ignited the housing bubble, which no one at the Fed was able to detect along the way. 
• The leveraged speculating community learned that no risk was too egregious and no profit too large, because government - that is, the Fed - had eliminated all the worst-case scenarios. Put another way, under this regime profit was privatized but loss was socialized.
• One of the nice things about the information age is that public figures leave long paper trails and can't therefore easily escape their pasts. 
• The risk of inflation is beginning to rise. Significant increases in inflation will ultimately increase the price of gold. Investment in gold is insurance, not for short-term gain, but for long-term protection.
• Gold standard would have helped mitigate risks of an unstable fiscal system like the one we have today.
• Going back on to the gold standard would be perceived as an act of desperation. But if the gold standard were in place today, we would not have reached the situation in which we now find ourselves. There is a widespread view that the 19th Century gold standard didn’t work. It wasn’t the gold standard that failed; it was politics.
• Protracted period of stagnant productivity growth, particularly in the developed world and social benefits crowded out gross domestic savings, the primary source for funding investment. The decline in gross domestic savings has suppressed capital investment and is reflected proportionately in the people’s standard of living. 
• As productivity growth slows down, the whole economic system slows down provoking despair and a consequent rise in economic populism from Brexit to Trump. Populism is not a philosophy or a concept, like socialism or capitalism, it is a cry of pain by the people.
• At the same time, the risk of inflation is beginning to rise. In the United States, the unemployment rate is below 5%, putting upward pressure on wages. Demand is picking up, as manifested by broad increase in the money supply stoking inflationary pressures. Impose inflation on stagnation, you get stagflation.
• Today, we cannot afford to spend on infrastructure in the way that we should. Much such infrastructure would have to be funded with government debt. We would never have reached this position of extreme indebtedness were we on the gold standard, because the gold standard is a way of ensuring that fiscal policy never gets out of line.

My View:
The above contents are largely the experiences of USA during the longest tenure of its Fed Reserve's Chairman Alan Greenspan (1987 thro 2006). India following the more or less same principles is also suffering with inflation, budget deficits, large borrowings, reckless spending, crony capitalists, and above all unbridled corruption by politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen, who work hand in hand, to loot the nation. While the rich & educated became super rich, poor remained poor only. Inflation and low bank interest rates hurting the savers especially old people who live on interest income on the fixed deposits. Today India ratings are just a notch above junk status and ratings upgrade in next two years is unlikely. Banking system is on the verge of collapse with NPAs trebling in the past two years. Tax evasion and black money is restricting our economical growth. Agriculture that provides livelihood for 65% of people, who are largely poor, uneducated & unskilled and rural based, has been made unprofitable by successive governments. Modi's recent demonetization, publicized as surgical strike on black money hoarders and corrupt people turned out to be least thought, politically motivated, poorly executed man made economic disaster unprecedented in independent India destroying livelihoods of poor & lower classes and recovery to its pre-demonetization levels is expected only after two years. Despite all ills, India with large masses of consumption and production has resilience to survive and grow.

UP Elections - Likely outcome

• Hearing 'Modi, Modi' in and around, Muslims got divided between the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP). The estimates are at least 70% Muslims in his voted for the SP and remaining BSP.
• It's enough to make the SP candidate win, because the SP is getting some extra votes beyond M and Y, Muslim and Yadav.
• Regarding Ram mandir to be built in Ayodhya, voters said they have heard this forever.
• Ragrding the decisiveness with which demonetisation was announced overnight, has even more brought about a near consolidation among Hindus. About 65% Baniyas, upset with demonetisation, voted for the SP candidate as a negative vote for the BJP, to send a message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• There are women and youth across caste and community lines who never cared to vote but voted this time for Akhilesh Yadav, to defeat BJP.
• This election is difficult to read in the absence of a perceptible wave, or leher, the only way to understand voter behaviour is caste.
• Not just journalists and psephologists, even politicians don't really know what's cooking inside the voting machines.
• There will be many who will get it right, but by chance. Anyone who claims to be able to read this election is bluffing. Or may be it is just a bad reporter playing it safe.

My View:
BJP is lacking 'slogan' and CM face and burdened with demonetisation woes; Modi's war against corruption, black money, fake currency & terrorism financing proved to be a gimmick; his stoic silence about demonetisation benefits; absence of noticeable anti incumbancy vote against Akhilesh Yadav; Ram Mandir not generating any Hindu polarisation but polarising Muslims against itself; and caste grouping unfavourable to BJP; SP-Congress combine likely to add 6-9% votes etc leaves SP-Congress combine in a hopeful position to sail through the election with a simple majority similar to that of Jayalalitha AIADMK in Tamilnadu six moths ago. However voter behaviour and election outcomes are not easily predictable even to the psephologists.