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In this lesson, you will learn how different governments are organized. Please keep in mind the questions listed below as you proceed through this lesson.

Who has the authority to make the rules?

How did they get that authority?

Why do we need rules?

(socpyrmo)

Many different forms of governments have been used throughout history, including this model from ancient Egypt.

The systems of governments can be placed into several categories including the following:

1. Who can participate in the government?

2. How is power is distributed?

3. What economic system does the government employ?

However, there are three major categories of government:

AUTOCRACY

OLIGARCHY

DEMOCRACY

Each of these major types of government has many variations.

The oldest form of government is an autocracy.

An autocracy is a government that is ruled by one person. There are several ways an autocrat can come to power:

• Inheritance (e.g. monarchy)
• military power (e.g. dictatorship)
• in some cases, religious leadership

If the autocrat inherited the rule, the government is a monarchy.

A MONARCHY has a king, queen, or emperor who has great power in the exercise of government.

If the monarch has complete power over his or her people, the government is an absolute monarchy.

The king of Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarch.

Another kind of monarchy is a constitutional monarchy.

In a constitutional monarchy, the ruler shares governing powers with an elected legislature or parliament. Some constitutional monarchs are strictly figureheads who have no real governing powers.

Great Britain and Japan are constitutional monarchies.

Another form of autocracy, in which power is taken by force, is a dictatorship.

In a dictatorship, a leader and a close group of allies take a government by military force, or by manipulating political elections. The dictator has control of the people in all aspects of their social and economic lives.

Adolph Hitler was the dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945.

Another kind of government in which only a few people rule is an olygarchy.

A small group of people control an oligarchy, getting their power from wealth, social position, military strength, or a combination of those things.

Note: Usually a communist country is actually an oligarchy.

Democracy is the third major form of government.

The people rule and hold sovereign power in a democracy.

Democracies operate in one of two ways.

There are very few direct democracies today, because such governments require citizens to vote on issues individually. Only in small societies is a direct democracy efficient.

In ancient Athens, all the citizens could gather in one place to vote on their government, but in places such as the United States, that would be impossible.

(repdem2)

This kind of democracy is used for larger societies.

Citizens elect people to represent them in the seat of government. These representatives are given law-making authority and the ability to conduct government for the people whom they represent.

In the United States, most governing bodies, from city councils to the U.S. Congress, are formed by representatives who are elected by the people.

Governments can be categorized in the distribution of power to different governmental bodies within a nation.

There are three basic government models that have a distribution of power:

A first basic model of government is the unitary government.

(UNITGOVT)

Most governments today are unitary. All governmental powers are held by a central government in a unitary system. The central government may create smaller local units to make the job of administration easier, but local powers come from the central government.

Great Britain, with its centralized Parliament, is an example of a unitary government.

The second basic system of government is the federal system.

The federal system of government divides power between the central government and local governments. This division of power is established by a higher authority that cannot be changed without agreement from both the central and local governments.

In America this higher authority is the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.

In the United States, the Constitution specifies which powers belong to the central government and which go to the states.

(fedgovt)

Neither the central government nor the states may change the Constitution unless the states and national government agree.

The third basic model of government is a confederation.

The amount of political power that is given to the central government is determined by the member states.

Confederation is an alliance by separate states to make it easier to cooperate with each other. Therefore, confederations have very little power. Power remains with the individual and independent states that make up the confederate government.

The United States had a confederate form of government under the Articles of Confederation from 1777 to 1789 when the Constitution was ratified.

During the Civil War (1861-1865) the Southern States had a confederate form of government.

The only confederate government that exists today is the Commonwealth of Independent States, created by some of the republics of the former Soviet Union.

The new Commonwealth of Independent States is trying to establish a capitalist society to replace the communist government of the Soviet Union.

(confgovt)

One purpose of government is to make economic decisions for its people. There are however, many different ways to answer the basic economic questions:

1.What and how much is to be produced by a nation?

2. How should goods and services be produced?

3. Who receives the goods and services produced?

To answer these questions, three major economic systems have evolved:

SOCIALISM

COMMUNISM

CAPITALISM

Socialism is a system in which the government owns the means of production - the factories, farms, and machinery. A socialist government decides how resources are to be used, who gets the products, and the level of wages for workers. The socialist government also provides services to its people: education, welfare, and health care.

Great Britain has some elements of a socialist government.

A similar, but more severe, economic system is communism.

Under communism, as in socialism, the government owns the land, factories, banks, and even transportation facilities.

A communist government makes all decisions about production and the distribution of goods.

People living under communism have very limited choices concerning the careers they pursue or the kinds of products they may buy.

If a communist government chooses to make tractors this year instead of shoes, there will be fewer shoes available to the public.

The third economic system is capitalism.

Unlike socialism and communism, capitalism is an economic system that encourages private ownership of property and the means of production. Competition among producers creates many choices of products and services for people. The chance to earn a profit is the motive for individuals to enter into business.

In a pure capitalistic society, the government makes no economic decisions. There is no pure capitalist economic system in existence today.

The United States operates under a form of capitalism called a MIXED MARKET ECONOMY.

In this type of economy, capitalism and free enterprise are supported by some government decisions: taxes, laws encouraging or discouraging certain business practices, and so on.

The objective of this lesson was to examine various models of government. The relationship of economic systems and governments was also discussed.

In the next lesson we will continue our study of government and economic systems.

Good luck on the tests! (We recommend that you take the practice tests twice to help you prepare better.)