Omar

On the surface, identifying a form of government appears to be easy. Most would say that the United States is a federal republic while the former Soviet Union was a //totalitarian state//. However, as Kopstein and Lichbach argue, defining regimes is tricky. Defining a form of government is especially problematic when trying to identify those elements that are essential to that form. There appears to be a disparity between being able to identify a form of government and identifying the necessary characteristics of that form. For example, in trying to identify the essential characteristics of a democracy, one might say "elections." However, both citizens of the former soviet union and citizens of the US voted for candidates to public office in their respective states. The problem with such a comparison is that most people are not likely to accept it because it does not comport with their sense of reality. Since most people are not going to accept an evaluation that makes the former soviet union as democratic as the US, the usefulness of the concept is undermined.