Political Systems (Forms of Government) Autocracy: Any form of government where one person (auto) holds all the power

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1 Name Political Systems (Forms of Government) Democracy: Any form of government where citizens control their government through voting in elections o Direct Democracy: All citizens have a chance to participate. The people directly control the laws because every citizens of a certain age (usually over 18 or 21) and group (usually men or men who own property) can be part of the government at some point in their lives. They write laws, submit them, vote on them there is no difference between the people and the government. o Representative Democracy: sometimes called indirect democracy or a republic. In this government people elect leaders who then write and vote on the laws for their society. These leaders are responsible for making laws that the rest of the citizens want, and if they don t serve the people, the citizens will not vote again for them. Autocracy: Any form of government where one person (auto) holds all the power o Monarchy: Kings, queens, princes, princesses, sultans, Tsars (Czars), and other titles that refer to a leader whose family possesses the absolute (total) power in a nation. These monarchs have lifetime power and when they die, power is usually passed to the oldest direct male child of the monarch (if no male child is alive, it may pass to either a brother or cousin of the monarch or to his oldest daughter). o Dictatorship: In this forms of government, power is not inherited, but usually taken by force. A dictator has absolute power and because his power is not guaranteed like a monarchy, dictators usually use more repression (limiting people s freedoms and opinions) and need a strong military. Theocracy: in a theocracy, the religion is the laws for the whole society. Most religions have a set of rules or laws, and to enforce these rules or laws, there must be a strong government that is controlled by religious leaders. There might be a king, or elected officials, but the religious leaders always have the most power in a theocracy. Oligarchy: This form of government involves two or more people who control a nation usually by military force (called a military junta), rich/elite families (an aristocracy), or religious leaders (theocratic oligarchy). They usually have to discuss and make decisions as a group where everyone is happy with the decisions. These forms of government don t usually last too long because one person in the oligarchy usually wants more power. Anarchy: this means no government any rules are just whatever traditions people in the society have, but there is no one person or group of people who gets to decide what are the actual rules, what is fair, or who should be punished for breaking rules.

2 1) There is an army marching towards your city you need to raise a defending army, build walls around the city, and this has to be done fast. The problem is that you don t have enough money in the government s treasury to do it, so you d need to get the upper classes to contribute. Which government would be the best to have in this situation?

3 2) Your society has several groups of people different races, ethnicities, and religions. The government has just realized that because people and businesses have been making much more money from trade with other societies, the government collected more taxes and now has extra money. They need to decide how to spend the surplus tax money on the people in a fair way so that each group in society gets some benefits from it. Which government would be the best to have in this situation?

4 3) There are a lot of poor citizens in your society. They cannot find jobs and so crime is rising. The major types of crimes are that people are stealing, drinking too much, there is domestic violence (because of the drinking, but also because so many people are depressed and angry about being poor), and vandalism of public and private property. Your government needs to find a solution because all this crime is bad for business people cannot trade because they are afraid to travel and do things in public. Which form of government would be the best to have in this situation?

5 4) The president of your society used to be very effective she defended the nation against an attack from a foreign army, she was able to get different political parties to agree on things, and she was elected twice. But two years before the end of her term as president she messed up she was caught stealing money from the government and using it to buy houses and then sell them. Many people want her to be removed from power, but others believe that she is still a good president and deserves to finish her term, but be fined a huge amount of money as punishment for what she did. Which form of government would be the best to have in this situation?

6 5) Four different gangs have controlled different areas of your city-state for the past 40 years. Before that, there was a dictator, but he died of a heart attack and when nobody could agree on who should take over, the four people who were his closest began fighting against each other. There is so much conflict between these four gangs in the city-state that every day, regular citizens get hurt or killed. Which form of government would be the best to have in this situation?

7 6) Your society has just won a war, but in the process, most of the homes, businesses, roads, and ports have been destroyed. Everybody is tired of war and very sad. They are losing faith in their country and need a way to come together and fix everything while still having pride in their nation. Which form of government would be best to have in this situation?