Transcript Types of Governments

Types of Governments
Learning Target
• What is the difference between different
forms of government?
Definition
Political system by which a body of people is
administered and regulated.
It’s how a country is run
Autocracy
Definition: Government structure where power is held by
one ruler.
Current example: North Korea under Kim Jong-Il
Note: Don’t be fooled by a name. The official name for North
Korea is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Examples of Autocratic Leaders
Kim Jung Il – North Korea
Hugo Chavez - Venezuela
Absolute Monarchy
Definition: government structure where one monarch
has power to rule the people freely as he or she chooses.
Current Example: Saudi Arabia under King and Prime
Minister ABDALLAH bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud
Absolute Monarchs
King Mswati III - Swaziland
King Abdullah –
Saudi Arabia
Constitutional Monarchy
Definition: System of government in which a monarch’s
powers are restricted to what is contained in a Constitution.
Current Example: United Kingdom (Britain) under Queen
Elizabeth II
Constitutional Monarchs
Queen Elizabeth - England
Yang di-Pertuan Agong Malaysia
Dictatorship
Definition: government rule by a dictator possessing
absolute power and authority.
Current Example: Cuba under Castro
Dictators
Fidel Castro - Cuba
Adolf Hitler – Nazi Germany
Communism
• Definition: A system of government in
which the state plans and controls the
economy and a single, often authoritarian
political party holds power.
– Example: China, or the former Soviet Union
Communist Leaders
Hu Jintao - China
Joseph Stalin - USSR
Representative Democracy
Definition: a type of government in which the citizens
delegate authority to elected representatives
Current Example: The U.S.
Representative Leaders
Barack Obama - USA
Angela Merkel - Germany
Theocracy
Definition: a state in which the clergy exercise political
power and in which religious law is dominant over civil law.
Current Example: Iran under Mahmud AHMADI-NEJAD
Theocracy
Pope Benedict IV - Rome
Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad Iran
• Different governments have different
priorities
Priorities
• In an Autocracy, the main focus of the
government is the government itself.
Statue of Kim Il Sung in North Korea
Priorities
• In an Absolute
Monarchy, the goal of
the government is to
keep the crown, and
the power in their
family.
Priorities
• In a Representative Democracy and a
Constitutional Monarchy, the priority is to
do the will of the people.
– So the elected officials will be re-elected.
Priorities
• In a Dictatorship, the goal is to preserve a
set of political ideas.
Priorities
• In a Theocracy the goal is to preserve and
spread the religion the government favors.