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Sections: Introduction | Section 1 | Section 2 |
Government : Forms of Government : Section One Forms of Government There are three basic forms of government. These are known as unitary, confederate and federal systems.
There are other ways to classify governments, as well. Governments can be classified by how their legislative (law making) and executive (law enforcing) branches share power. A parliamentary government is one in which the chief executive is a member of the legislative branch. He or she is selected by the legislators to fill this position. A presidential government is one that has a chief executive that is elected directly by the people, and the legislative and executive branches are separate from one another. The two branches have the power to monitor each other, and to sometimes block or restrain the powers of the other branch. We can also classify government by how many people hold power. An autocracy is a government that has all the power resting in the hands of one individual. This type of government can be a dictatorship, a government with one all-powerful ruler who often takes power by force, or a monarchy, a government ruled by a king or queen. An oligarchy is a type of government that is run by a small group of people. This group's power may stem from wealth, family ties, or a political party that dominates the government. An oligarchy is often an authoritarian type of government, in which the government holds all power and limits the actions and freedoms of the people. Both oligarchies and autocracies are usually authoritarian forms of government. Often times a dictator will give the appearance of their nation being a democratic one by allowing elections, but the elections involved candidates from only one political party, or the results are rigged so that the dictator wins reelection. This allows him to say to the world that he was a democratically elected official and that it is the will of his people that he rule – even though this is not actually the case. A democracy is a government that is run by the people. There are two different types of democracies. A direct democracy is one in which the people govern themselves; a representative democracy is one in which the people elect officials to run the government for them. You will learn more about democracy in the next section. Now it’s time to take the quiz on section 1. When you are finished, proceed to section 2. |
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