According to Yale professor Juan José Linz there are three main types of political systems today: democracies, totalitarian regimes and, sitting between these two, authoritarian regimes with hybrid regimes. Another modern classification system includes monarchies as a standalone entity or as a hybrid system of the main three.

Countries are often divided into different groups according to political or economic criteria. Often, these groups can be clearly defined. For example, there are clear specifications in terms of economic performance for the classification of developing countries vis-à-vis industrialized countries.