A HERETIC'S OUTLINE OF POLITICAL SYSTEMS by Sam Wells .

The following is a general outline which breaks down political systems into two aspects: governmental Form and governmental Scope. In this context, the "form" has to do with WHO or HOW MANY rule (make public policies, decide what the government does). The "scope" of government has to do with the total EXTENT and RANGE of JURISDICTION of the government (no matter how many or who the rulers are). A government's scope may be virtually universal and unlimited -- with the government having total eminent domain (at least theoretically) over all the people and every thing in the nation. That would be totalitarianism -- or full socialism. A government's scope may be limited (say, by a Constitution) -- leaving at least some areas of human life off-limits to the government's jurisdiction. There are two categories of Governmental Scope: Interventionism and Laissez Faire. Likewise, there are two categories of Governmental Form: Whimarchy and Republic. The follow- ing is highly simplified, but will serve to indicate the kinds of inter- mediate forms and scopes between the two end points of socialism and laissez faire. Since politics is based on more fundamental disciplines, its place in the context of philosophy is shown by placing it in a broader outline without going into all the details under the other main branches. Clearly, IV is an elaboration of IIIB2b.

I. ONTOLOGY (Existenceology) 


II. EPISTEMOLOGY (Knowledgeology) 


III. ETHICS (Oughtology)

          A. Personal Morality (Man the Individual)
          B. The Ethics of Inter-personal Relations (Man in Society)
                   1. Voluntary Relations (Market Economics)
                   2. Coercive Relations
                             a. Illegal Coercion (Criminology)
                             b. Legal Coercion (Politics)


IV. POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (Governmentology)
A. Governmental Form: Who and How Many Rule?
1. Whimarchy: Rule by the arbitrary whims of rulers
a. Oligarchy (the whims of a minority)
b. Monarchy (the whims of one person; tends to oligarchy)
c. Democracy (the whims of a majority; tends to oligarchy)
d. Polyarchal Vigilantism (gang warfare; tends to oligarchy)
e. Anarchy (gang warfare; leads to oligarchy)
2. Republic: the Rule of Law (the government itself and its officials are ruled by constitutional and legal limitations; a consistent application of fundamental principles; standard procedures, due process, fixed "rules of the game" not to be changed by anyones arbitrary whim for the benefit of some players at the expense of other players)
B. Governmental Scope: What is the scope of government powers?
1. Statist Interventionism: the government seeks to "organize society" or cope with social or economic problems through various kinds of intervention -- from controls and regulations and taxes to outright state ownership and operation of the means of production
a. Socialism (the ultimate scope of statist interventionism)
b. Fascism (tends toward full socialism)
c. Welfare Statism (tends to fascism and socialism)
d. Petit Interventionism (tends to c, b, and a above)
2. Laissez Faire: the government uses its powers only to defend against and justly retaliate against those who initiate the use of coercion -- criminals and foreign aggressors -- but leaves other people alone with respect to their private affairs and voluntary relationships. The scope of government power is strictly limited to this policy of laissez faire. Under such a policy, the proper function of government is not to govern peoples' lives and properties for them (which would necessarily violate their right to govern their own lives and properties themselves), but rather to keep people from trying to govern other people through the initiation of the use of violence, force, or fraud. To this end, such a republic would consist of a national defense, a law court system, and local police departments, and a few ancillary functions. Beyond this line the government would be prohibited from going. .
 
Two general tendencies must be considered: 1. The Iron Law of Oligarchy -- All whimarchal forms tend toward oligarchy; 2. The Iron Law of Socialism -- All interventionist scopes tend toward full socialism. Given these two tendencies, oneultimate system is a Socialist Oligarchy (A1a / B1a). The other ultimate system is Laissez-Faire Republic (A2 / B2).


So, one may say that the two ultimate social systems are a Socialist Oligarchy on the one hand and a Laissez-Faire Republic on the other. All other systems lie somewhere in between these ultimate alternatives.