In an attempt to breath some life into this guild::

There have been many different forms of state formation throughout history, and I was wondering which the the people in this guild thought best suited to its social/economic situation.

By state I mean that social organisation which claims a monopoly of legitimate violence and holds apart from the society a special body of men (and now some women as well) to utilise that legitimate violence. Here I mean the cops, courts, prisons and military forces as guided by the government.

By government I mean the people who at a particular time have their hands on the state apparatus. Under a monarchy the different monarchs constitute different governments, under a representative demoracy the current elected majority party or coalition is the government.

So, please tell me what state powers were the most effective at maintaining themselves and those who benefited from that state power.
You may want to talk about which gov't was best in guiding said state through troubles and which ******** things up most as well, if so, go ahead.