Forms Of Government Flashcards, test questions and answers
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What is Forms Of Government?
A form of government is a set of political institutions by which a state or community is organized. Governments control the lives of citizens to varying degrees, and they can be classified in many different ways. One way to classify governments is by how much power they have over their citizens. The most basic form of government is an autocracy, which is when one person has absolute power over all other individuals and organizations within the state. Examples include dictatorships and monarchies. These forms of government often restrict individual rights and freedoms in order to maintain control over the population. Another type of government is an oligarchy, where a small group holds power within the state. This group may come from a specific social class, like the aristocracy in some feudal societies, or it may be comprised of wealthy businesspeople or military leaders who are able to exert influence on public policy decisions. An example would be Russia’s oligarchs from the 1990s who had significant economic and political clout despite not being elected officials. The most common form of government worldwide today is democracy, which emphasizes citizen participation in decision-making through elections and representation by elected officials who are accountable to their constituents for their actions while in office. Democracies typically guarantee certain individual rights such as freedom of speech and religious expression that might not be found in non-democratic systems. Finally, there are hybrid forms of government that combine elements from two or more types discussed above; these can resemble democracies but with modified features such as allowing for an executive office with greater powers than other branches of government or allowing for referendum vote outcomes to override legislative decisions made by elected representatives (as seen in Switzerland).