Types of Government

Kremlin

SenateParliament

Bern/Switzerland

Oligarchy•Description

–When a family or small group of people with wealth or power control the government

•Example–Saudi Arabia’s Royal Family

Autocracy

•Government by a single person having unlimited power

•Often thought of as “bad” because the ruler could have very harsh rulings.

Dictatorship • A dictatorship consists of rule by one person or a group of people• Very few dictators admit they are dictators

and almost always claim to be leaders of democracies– The dictator may be one person

•Castro in Cuba •Hitler in Germany

– Or a group of people•The Communist Party in the former Soviet Union

Dictatorship• Description

– A leader takes control over the gov’t and has total power

• Example– Cuba

(Castro) & Iraq (Saddam Hussein)

Democracy

•The word “democracy” literally means “rule by the people.”

•In a democracy, the people hold the power

Direct Democracy• Description

– The power of gov’t is controlled directly by the people

• Example– New England Townhall Meetings

Representative Democracy

• Description– The people elect

representatives who then make decisions for them

• Example– The United

States/Senators& Represenatives

Geographic Distribution of Power

• Unitary:All government power belongs to a single group.

• Federal: Power of the government is divided between a central government and smaller local governments. (state gov’ts)

• Confederation: An alliance of individual countries which have the same power/Civil War/Confederacy

Parliamentary Democratic Government

• The Parliament controls the power• Prime Minister leads the

Parliament• Prime Minister is chosen by the

majority party in the Parliament, not the majority of the people

• Prime Minister & Parliament share power

Canada/Harper Gordon Brown/England

Presidential Democracy

• President controls the final power• The legislative & executive

branches are separate but share power

• President answers to the voters who elect him

Think, Pair, Share

• DIRECTIONS: on a scrap sheet of paper • THINK - What will likely happen if a

government denies power to the people it governs?

• PAIR – Read another students answer to the question, then get your paper back and add any comments to your paper

• SHARE – tell the class when the teacher calls on you