A note on country governance approaches

Some of the big choices that countries make when selecting their approach to governance:

1. Top-down (autocratic) vs bottom-up in legitimacy (democratic).
2. Capitalist vs communist (w/ socialist in the middle) ownership of production.
3. Individualistic (i.e. wellbeing of individual first) vs collectivist (i.e. wellbeing of the whole first).

Examples of governance approaches defined according to the big choices above:

• Liberal Democracy = democratic + capitalist + individualistic
• Social Democracy = democratic + socialist + individualistic/collectivist (balance of both)
• Fascism = autocratic + capitalist + collectivist (though state-directed; debated)
• Communism = autocratic + communist + collectivist