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Types of Governments
To study governments, geographers look at the following:
Types – Who rules and who participates.
Systems – How the power is distributed.
Types of Government are based on one key question: Who governs and what is the citizen participation?
There are three types of governments:Autocracy, Oligarchy, and Democracy
Autocracy
Government in which the power to govern is held by one person.Generally the power to rule is inherited or by military force.There are three
types of Autocracy.
#1 Dictatorship
The leader has not been elected and uses force to control all aspects of social and economic life.Examples: Adolf Hitler in Germany and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union
#2 AbsoluteMonarchy
A monarchy has a king, queen, emperor or empress.The power is usually inherited or passed down from family members. The monarch has absolute power meaning they can make all decisions without consulting anyone.
#3 Constitutional Monarchy
Kings, queens or emperors share power with elected legislatures.Generally the Kings are nothing more than figureheads.The government is a democratic one that limits the monarchs power.Example: Great Britain
OligarchyA government in which a few people such as a dominant clan or clique have power.The group gets their power from either military, wealth or social status.Elections may be held but offer
only one candidate.Examples: Greek city states
DemocracyIn a democracy, the government is “Rule by the people”There are two forms of democracyDirect Democracy – People vote on all the
issues.Representative Democracy – People elect
representatives and give them the power to vote on issues.
Example: United States
In a democracy….
Individual freedom and equality is valued.Free elections are heldDecisions are based on majority rule.All candidates can express their views freely.Citizens vote by secret ballot.
Democratic GovernmentsThere are two major forms of democratic governments:ParliamentaryPresidential
Parliamentary Democracy
Voters elect members to the Parliament (legislature)Parliament has two Houses: House of Commons: The Political Party with the
most votes in the House of Commons chooses the Prime Minister, the government’s leader with no set length of term.
House of Lords: Little power with most members being nobles having inherited their titles
Presidential Democracy
Voters elect legislatorsVoters elect (indirectly) the president.Therefore, in the presidential system voters
have a more direct say about those who serve in two branches of the government :
LegislativeExecutive
Parliamentary System
Presidential System
ExecutiveExecutive LegislativeLegislative
CitizensCitizensCitizensCitizens
LegislativeLegislative
ExecutiveExecutive
Elect
Elect
Elect
Elect
Select
Select
ElectElect
Putting it all together….
The United Kingdom is an autocratic constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy and a unitary system.The United States is a presidential democracy with a federal system.
What do those statements mean?
What do you remember?
What are the three types of governments?
What are the three systems of government?