A government is a body that has the power to make, and the authority to enforce rules and laws within a civil, corporate, religious, academic, or other organization or group.

The government consists of different levels: local government, regional governments and national governments, depending on closeness to those who are governed and their responsibilities. The governments can be classified in various ways: The classical way of classification is according to the number of people who hold the power. The more recent classification bases itself on the institutional organization or the distribution and the degree of control exercised over the society.

Governments are often classified according to the number of people who hold political power.

In autocracies one individual holds all the power. This category includes absolute monarchies, as well as dictatorships.
In oligarchies political power is held by a small group of people who share the same interests.
Democracies are governments where the people as a whole, hold the power. It may be exercised by them, or through representatives chosen by them.

Anarchy is a lack of government or imposed rule.

The boundaries between the above forms of government are not absolute. For example, during the 19th century, many proclaimed "democracies" restricted voting rights to a minority of the population. This could qualify them as oligarchies, rather than as democracies. On the other hand, the non voting minority was often quite large and its members did not form a voting group with common interests. This is seen as the hallmark of most oligarchies. Thus, this form of government occupied a space between democracy and oligarchy as they are understood today.

Many political philosophies that are opposed to the existence of a government, emphasize the historical roots of governments - the fact that governments, along with private property, originated from the authority of warlords and despots who took, by force land as their own. Thus, it is sometimes argued that governments exist to enforce the will of the strong and oppress the weak, maintaining and protecting the privilege of a ruling class. It states that the government emerged when all the people of an area were brought under the authority of one person or group.

The various forms of conservatism, by contrast, generally see the government as a positive force that brings order out of chaos, establishes laws to end the "war of all against all", encourages moral virtue, while punishing vice, and respects tradition. Sometimes, in this view, the government is seen as something ordained by a higher power, as in the divine right of kings, which human beings have a duty to obey.