 Give all power to the central government  Central government may delegate duties to smaller political units (cities) but retains final authority  Stronger than the federal government

Examples Pictures  Kenya  South Korea  France  Italy  Japan

 A loose alliance of countries or other political units like states  Each unit has final control of its own laws and citizens  Central government makes decisions only on issues that affect the entire confederation  They are unstable because members want to do things their own way

Examples What is similar?  Confederate States of America  British Commonwealth of Nations

 Divides power between the central government and government of smaller political units (states)  Gives a lot of power to the lower governments to handle local affairs  Central government handles issues concerning the entire country(armed forces and negotiating treaties with foreign countries

Examples Can you tell them apart?  United states  Canada  Mexico  Brazil

 Autocratic  Oligarchic  Democratic

 One leader holds complete power  The opposite of a democracy  Citizens have no participation in government

The German Nazi regime was under Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1945

 Control over a small group of people with wealth and power  Citizen participation is restricted to the ruling group  Example: The apartheid system in South Africa (a small group of whites held power over the black majority from 1948 to 1994)

South Africa’s most celebrated hero. Mandela fought against apartheid. He became the first democratically elected president of South Africa. Mandela also won the Nobel Prize of Peace in 1993.

 The people hold supreme power  People exercise their power by electing officials to represent them  All citizens have equal rights to participate in government regardless of position or wealth

Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States of America. We are celebrating his 200 th birthday this year.

 There are two predominant forms of democratic governments: parliamentary and presidential  The main difference between the two is the relationship between the legislative and executive branches of government

 The legislature (Parliament) controls the power  The majority party in legislature forms a government headed by a prime minister  The prime minister and his cabinet are members of the legislature  The prime minister answers to the legislature ( fusion of powers )  The government stays in office for a specified period unless the prime minister loses support of the majority on an important vote

 The executive and legislative branches are separate bodies elected independently by the citizens ( separation of powers )  There are checks and balances where each branch can overrule the other  The president answers to the voters, not the legislature  The people elect the president, and elections are held at set intervals

Big Ben (tall clock tower) and Parliament

The Capitol of the United States of America is home to the House of Representatives and Congress. Both parties make up the legislature.

 Would you rather live in a democracy, autocracy, or oligarchy? Why?  The End.