I like communism if I have around 500+ units and a very large empire and am at war. Under communism I just set research slider to 0 and steal techs from other civs.. works pretty good with commies. Otherwise stick mostly with democracy later game and republic late early-mid game.
Of course it depends on how you want to play a particular game; but lately I've just switched to monarchy and I keep killing people until there's noone left (except for my peeps).