flvs civics- going global - forms of government
Government/Political Science
The Forms of government
You're cruising the Pacific in your luxury yacht when you come across a deserted island. Turns out, it's not so deserted after all. There's a bunch of islanders arguing about who owns all the coconuts. You approach them and ask who's in charge. No one, they say. You ask them if they have a government or any laws. One of them asks, what are those? Well, you say, a government organizes people and makes laws or rules to protect their property and rights. That means you won't have to fight over the coconuts anymore. You guys want to start one? The islanders nod there are lots of different types, you say.
First, you have to decide who gets to have the decision making power. One type is a democracy. That's when you give everyone decision making power. A democracy can either be direct or indirect. In a direct democracy, everyone gets a vote on every major decision. It works best for small groups like the one here on this island. But only if you guys can agree to follow the decision with the most votes. If you keep arguing like this, all your coconuts will rot. There's also an indirect democracy, also called a representative democracy or simply a republic. We have this type of government where I come from the United States. We elect a few individuals to represent us as groups. We trust those people to make decisions in our best interests. If they don't, we can elect new representatives.
Another type of government is called an oligarchy. That's when a small group of leaders makes decisions for the whole group. They tend to be members of the same political party, meaning they have the same ideas about how to run the government. It doesn't matter if the people they govern disagree with them. Since these leaders hold the highest positions in the government, they have the power to make all their decisions based on the party's ideas. An autocracy is when one person runs the government, making all the decisions. A monarchy is a type of autocracy run by a queen or king. Monarch's rule for life under hereditary, meaning each new queen or king is a family member of the previous monarch, usually a son or daughter. In an absolute monarchy, there's a single ruler with no limits on power. In a constitutional monarchy, the monarch is limited by a constitution and laws. A dictatorship is also an autocracy, a dictator rules the nation by force making all government decisions, sometimes with the help of advisers.
Dictators want power for life, they like to take all the coconuts for themselves if you know what I mean. There's also socialism and communism. They're not really a type of government, they're more like ideas of how to run a government. Socialism is an economic system that limits individual ownership. Socialists think all resources should be shared equally. In other words, everyone gets the same number of coconuts. In a communist system, leaders of the Communist Party put socialist ideas into practice. They make all the important economic decisions. If your island was communist, they would control all the coconuts, assigning who would collect them, cut them down, deliver them, and drill them for milk.
Communist governments tend to practice socialism and take the form of autocracies or oligarchies. They often use force to protect their power and limit trade with other nations. They try to meet most of their needs with their nation's own resources. So that's it. Democracy, oligarchy, and autocracy. The three main types of government. Got it? The natives nod and then look back at their coconuts. You bid them well, grabbing a coconut from the pile as you head back to the comfort of your yacht.