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Political Systems (Forms of Government)

Democracy: Any form of government where citizens control their government through voting in
elections
o Direct Democracy: All citizens have a chance to participate. The people directly control the
laws because every citizens of a certain age (usually over 18 or 21) and group (usually men or
men who own property) can be part of the government at some point in their lives. They write
laws, submit them, vote on them there is no difference between the people and the
government.
o Representative Democracy: sometimes called indirect democracy or a republic. In this
government people elect leaders who then write and vote on the laws for their society. These
leaders are responsible for making laws that the rest of the citizens want, and if they dont
serve the people, the citizens will not vote again for them.

Autocracy: Any form of government where one person (auto) holds all the power
o Monarchy: Kings, queens, princes, princesses, sultans, Tsars (Czars), and other titles that
refer to a leader whose family possesses the absolute (total) power in a nation. These
monarchs have lifetime power and when they die, power is usually passed to the oldest direct
male child of the monarch (if no male child is alive, it may pass to either a brother or cousin
of the monarch or to his oldest daughter).
o Dictatorship: In this forms of government, power is not inherited, but usually taken by force.
A dictator has absolute power and because his power is not guaranteed like a monarchy,
dictators usually use more repression (limiting peoples freedoms and opinions) and need a
strong military.

Theocracy: in a theocracy, the religion is the laws for the whole society. Most religions have a set of
rules or laws, and to enforce these rules or laws, there must be a strong government that is controlled
by religious leaders. There might be a king, or elected officials, but the religious leaders always have
the most power in a theocracy.

Oligarchy: This form of government involves two or more people who control a nation usually by
military force (called a military junta), rich/elite families (an aristocracy), or religious leaders
(theocratic oligarchy). They usually have to discuss and make decisions as a group where everyone
is happy with the decisions. These forms of government dont usually last too long because one
person in the oligarchy usually wants more power.

Anarchy: this means no government any rules are just whatever traditions people in the society
have, but there is no one person or group of people who gets to decide what are the actual rules, what
is fair, or who should be punished for breaking rules.

Scenarios: For each scenario below, explain which type of government would be most helpful in solving the
problem. Explain why or you will receive no points for your answer.
1) There is an army marching towards your city you need to raise a defending army, build walls
around the city, and this has to be done fast. The problem is that you dont have enough money in the
governments treasury to do it, so youd need to get the upper classes to contribute. Which
government would be the best to have in this situation?
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2) Your society has several groups of people different races, ethnicities, and religions. The government
of has just realized that because people and businesses have been making much more money from
trade with other societies, the government collected more taxes and now has extra money. They need
to decide how to spend the surplus tax money on the people in a fair way so that each group in
society gets some benefits from it. Which government would be the best to have in this situation?
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3) There are a lot of poor citizens in your society. They cannot find jobs and so crime is rising. The
major types of crimes are that people are stealing, drinking too much, there is domestic violence
(because of the drinking, but also because so many men are depressed and angry about being poor),
and vandalism of public and private property. Your government needs to find a solution because all
this crime is bad for business people cannot trade because they are afraid to travel and do things in
public. Which form of government would be the best to have in this situation?
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4) The president of your society used to be very effective he defended the nation against an attack
from a foreign army, he was able to get different political parties to agree on things, and he was
elected twice. But two years before the end of his term as president he messed up he was caught
stealing money from the government and using it to buy houses and then sell them. Many people
want him to be removed from power, but others believe that he is still a good president and deserves
to finish his term, but be fined a huge amount of money as punishment for what he did. Which form
of government would be the best to have in this situation?
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5) Four different gangs have controlled different areas of your city-state for the past 40 years. Before
that, there was a dictator, but he died of a heart attack and when nobody could agree on who should
take over, the four men who were his closest began fighting against each other. There is so much
conflict between these four gangs in the city-state that every day, regular citizens get hurt or killed.
Which form of government would be the best to have in this situation?
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6) Your society has just won a war, but in the process, most of the homes, businesses, roads, and ports
have been destroyed. Everybody is tired of war and very depressed. They are losing faith in their
country and need a way to come together and fix everything while still having pride in their nation.
Which form of government would be best to have in this situation?

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