1. Forms of Governments

2. To study governments, geographers look at the following:
Types – Who rules and who participates?
Systems – How the POWER is distributed?

3. Types of Government are based on one key question: Who governs and what is the citizen participation?
There are two types of governments:
Autocracy and Democracy

4. Autocracy
Government in which the power to govern is held by one person.
Generally the power to rule is inherited or by military force.
Types of Autocracy.

5. #1 Dictatorship
The leader has not been elected and uses force to control all aspects of social and economic life.
Examples: Adolf Hitler in Germany and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union

6. #2 Absolute Monarchy A monarchy has a king, queen, emperor or empress.
Brunei, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Vatican City.
A monarchy has a king, queen, emperor or empress.
The power is usually inherited or passed down from family members.
The monarch has absolute power meaning they can make all decisions
without consulting anyone.

7. Democracy In a democracy, the government is “Ruled by the people”
There are two forms of democracy
Direct Democracy – People vote on all the issues.
Representative Democracy – People elect representatives and give them the power to vote on issues.
Example: United States

8. In a democracy…. Individual freedom and equality is valued.
Free elections are held
Decisions are based on majority rule.
All candidates can express their views freely.
Citizens vote by secret ballot.

9. Democratic Governments
There are two major kinds of democratic governments:
Parliamentary
Presidential

10. Parliamentary Democracy
Voters elect members to the Parliament (legislature)
Parliament has two Houses:
House of Commons: The Political Party with the most votes in the House of Commons chooses the Prime Minister, the government’s leader with no set length of term.
House of Lords or Senate: Little power with most members being nobles having inherited their titles.

11. Presidential Democracy
Voters elect legislators
Voters elect (indirectly) the president.
Therefore, in the presidential system voters have a more direct say about those who serve in two branches of the government :
Legislative
Executive

12. Parliamentary System Presidential System
Executive
Executive
Legislative
Select
Elect
Elect
Legislative
Elect
Citizens
Citizens

13. Putting it all together….
The United Kingdom is an autocratic constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy.
The United States is a presidential democracy.
What do those statements mean?