Midterms Lesson Midterms Lesson Midterms Lesson Midterms Lesson

1. Forms of Government

2. Wait--What is government anyway?
Government is a system of social control under which the right to make laws, and the
right to enforce them, is given to a particular group in society. Government power can
be held by one individual, a few, or a majority.

3. A little more about government…
 Governments come in different forms. The basic law
determining the form of government is called the
constitution and may be written, as in the United States,
or largely unwritten, as in Great Britain.

4. A little more about government…
Modern governments have many jobs including:
 providing for the security of their country
 keeping order
 Establishing a system of justice so that people are treated fairly
 providing welfare services to those in need
 regulating the economy (we’ll get to economic systems in a bit!)
 establishing educational systems
***In extreme cases of governmental regulation, every aspect of people's lives is
controlled. This is called totalitarianism. Can you think of a novel that has a
totalitarian government?

5. Government
 We distinguish between forms of government on the
basis of its organizational structure and the degree of
control exercised over the society.

6. Forms of Government
We will be learning about the following forms of
government:
 Democracy
 Monarchy
 Theocracy
 Dictatorship
 Transitional

7. Economic Systems
And a few economic systems…because they are closely
connected to governments!
 Capitalism
 Socialism
 Communism

8. Forms of
Government

9. Democracy
 Supreme power is given to the people and exercised by
them directly or indirectly through a system of
representation.
 Democratic countries have free elections where all
citizens have a vote.

10. Democracy
Examples of Democratic countries today:
 United States of America
 Philippines

11. Monarchy
 Rule by a single person (a king or queen), who is the permanent head of
state. The term is now used to refer to countries with hereditary rulers. This
means that rule is passed down from parent to child.
 Constitutional monarchies are more common today. Under this system,
the powers of the king or queen are restricted to those granted in the
constitution.
 Most constitutional monarchies use a parliamentary system in which the
king or queen may have strictly ceremonial duties. They often have a elected
prime minister who is the head of government.

12. Monarchy
Examples of countries with monarchies today:
 Saudi Arabia
 Brunei
 Qatar
 Oman
 Great Britain (Constitutional Monarchy)
 Australia (Constitutional Monarchy)
 Morocco (Constitutional Monarchy)
 Bhutan (Constitutional Monarchy—new!)

13. Theocracy
 In a theocracy, government leaders are members of the
clergy (church officials), and the state's legal system is
based on religious law.
 Rulers are thought to be “divinely guided”.

14. Theocracy
Examples of theocracies today:
 Iran
 The Vatican

15. Dictatorship
 A government in which a single leader or party exercises absolute control
over all citizens and every aspect of their lives.
 In most cases, this absolute power is exercised in a cruel way.
 Other names for a dictatorship include: Autocracy, Military Junta, Right
Wing, Authoritarianism, Totalitarianism or Fascism

16. Dictatorship
Examples of Dictatorships today:
 North Korea
 Libya
 Myanmar (Burma)
 Sudan

17. Transitional
 A transitional government is one that is in the process of
changing from one form to another
 Countries with transitional governments are often
unstable

18. Transitional
Examples of countries with transitional governments:
 Afghanistan
 Iraq

19. Economic Systems
Wait—what is economics about anyway?
Economics has to do with the production, distribution and
consumption of goods and services…
**One minute table talk: What do the words production,
distribution and consumption mean?

20. Capitalism
 An economic system in which individuals and
corporations are free to invest in and own all aspect of a
business.
 In a capitalist country, people own their own companies
and can manage them to earn a profit.

21. Socialism
 Apolitical and economic system in which some businesses are controlled by
the government rather than by individuals.
 In a socialist country, people have equal rights to various benefits (health,
education), and there is an effort to limit the inequalities of wealth and
power.
 Taxes are often quite high to provide for these benefits.
 People do hold private property in socialist countries.
 A country can be both socialist and democratic

22. Communism
 A political and economic system in which the government controls all
business.
 Individual people cannot own property or industries and in theory, people
of all social classes are treated equally.
 Communist countries have totalitarian governments.
 All communists are socialists, but not all socialists are communists.

23. Think of it as a spectrum…
Capitalism Socialism Communism
_______________________________________
United States
Canada
Sweden
China
Cuba
North Korea

24.  End