1. Government Basics

2. Ways Governments Distribute Power Unitary Confederation Federal

3. Power is divided between one central authority and several regional authorities Example: United States has federal government that meets in Washington DC and state governments in each state –Federal Government – Power to declare war –State Government – Power to set speed limit Countries in Middle East: Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Iraq (new government)

4. Federation / Federal Ways Government Distributes Power Regional Authority Central Authority Regional Authority

5. Unitary Power is held by ONE central authority Regional authorities do NOT have power Examples in Middle East: Afghanistan, Egypt, Israel, Iran, Syria, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen

6. Central Authority Unitary Regional Authority Ways Government Distributes Power

7. Confederation Voluntary association of states that often only give a few powers to the central authority States generally have great deal of independence and are more important than the central government Example: OPEC – Member nations (regional authority) only give OPEC (central authority) right to decide amount and price of barrel of oil

8. Central Authority Confederation Ways Government Distributes Power Regional Authority

9. Question: Do the citizens (people) of the nation have a say in their government?

10. Governments and Citizen Participation: Autocracy Autocratic – one person possesses unlimited power; citizens have limited if any role in government Forms of Autocratic Governments: –Absolute or Totalitarian Dictatorships –Absolute Monarchies

11. Government and Citizen Participation: Oligarchy Government by the FEW; citizens have very limited role in government Government run by small group that gets power from military, social status, wealth, religion, or a combination of these Examples: –Communist countries like China – leaders in political party and military control government –Afghanistan under the Taliban

12. Government and Citizen Participation: Democracy Citizens influence the government by voting; citizen participation is highest in this form of government Two basic types of democratic governments: –Parliamentary Democracy –Presidential Democracy