Editing Society (section)

=== Government and politics ===
{{Main|Government|Politics}}
[[File:United Nations Headquarters in New York City, view from Roosevelt Island.jpg|thumb|right|alt=refer to caption |The [[United Nations headquarters]] in New York City, which houses one of the world's largest political organizations]]
Governments create laws and [[policies]] that affect the people that they govern. There have been [[List of forms of government|many forms of government]] throughout human history, with various ways of allocating power, and with different levels and means of control over the population.<ref>{{cite book |last=Harrison |first=J. Frank |editor-last1=Sekiguchi |editor-last2=Masashi |date=2010 |orig-date=2009 |chapter=Forms and Models of Government |title=Government and Politics |volume=1 |publisher=Eolss Publishers |publication-place=United Kingdom |pages=30–48 |isbn=978-1-84826-969-9 |oclc=938309332}}</ref> In early history, distribution of political power was determined by the availability of [[fresh water]], [[Soil fertility|fertile soil]], and [[temperate climate]] of different locations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Holslag |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Holslag |year=2018 |title=A Political History of the World: Three Thousand Years of War and Peace |pages=24–25|publisher=Penguin Books, Limited |isbn=978-0-241-35204-5 |lccn=2018487155 |oclc=1066747142}}</ref> As farming populations gathered in larger and denser communities, interactions between different groups increased, leading to the further development of governance within and between communities.<ref>{{cite book |last=Christian |first=David |year=2004 |url=https://archive.org/details/mapsoftimeintrod00chri |title=Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |page=284 |isbn=978-0-520-24476-4 |lccn=2003012764 |oclc=52458844 |url-access=registration |quote=Where productivity increased and populations grew, farming communities and technologies spread into regions that had been only thinly populated before, thereby laying the foundations for new regions of agrarian civilization.}}</ref>

{{As of|2022}}, according to ''[[The Economist]]'', 43% of national governments were [[Democracy|democracies]], 35% [[Autocracy|autocracies]], and 22% containing elements of both.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023 |title=Democracy Index 2022: Frontline democracy and the battle for Ukraine |url=https://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438/images/DI-final-version-report.pdf |website=[[Economist Intelligence Unit]] |page=3 |url-status=live |archive-date=30 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330123307/https://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438/images/DI-final-version-report.pdf |access-date=11 January 2024}}</ref> Many countries have formed [[Intergovernmental organization|international political organizations]] and alliances, the largest being the United Nations with 193 member states.<ref>{{cite web |editor-last1=Evers |editor-first1=Jeanne |date=19 October 2023 |url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/international-organization/ |title=International Organization |website=[[National Geographic]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211044654/https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/international-organization/ |archive-date=11 December 2023 |access-date=11 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Mingst |first1=Karen A. |last2=Karns |first2=Margaret P. |last3=Lyon |first3=Alynna J. |year=2022 |chapter=The United Nations in World Politics |pages=1–20 |title=The United Nations in the 21st Century |edition=6th |publisher=[[Routledge]] |doi=10.4324/9781003038269-1 |isbn=978-1-003-03826-9 |lccn=2021042389 |oclc=1284920072}}</ref>