№ 1 - 2006
Zaznayev O.I.
Typology of Forms of Government: Rectification of Mistakes

To this day the question of typology of forms of government has not yet found adequate solution. The numbers of types being singled out range between two types and several dozens of types, nor is there unanimity as to which type this or that country should be attributed to. Analyzing the situation as it has formed, the author comes to the conclusion that the reason of such discordance roots not so much in the object itself being classified, as in the “traps” awaiting researchers who disregard logical rules and procedures. On stating some of the most widely spread mistakes (choosing an inessential criterion of typology; jump on the ladder of abstraction; overlap of division units; disparity of division; conceptual stretching; replacement of logic of classification by logic of gradation) and on doing “rectification work” on them, the author proposes his own typology of forms of government (presidential, parliamentary, semi-presidential and semi-parliamentary systems), which, in his view, removes classification problems.