hi my name is Kaeleigh and today we're going to talk about some of the
different types of government that exist in the world today a government is a
group of people that has the power to rule over a community like a state or a
country in this lesson we will be talking about the types of governments
that rule over countries there are a few key things that make up a government
governments make laws and collect taxes governments have a justice system that
decides punishments for breaking the law governments have militaries who can
defend the country or invade other countries and governments have a leader
but even with all of these similarities not all governments are the same we're
going to talk about the three main types of governments autocracy democracy and
oligarchy let's start with autocracy an autocracy is a government where all
power is controlled by one person in an autocracy the leader does not have to
follow the law or listen to what the people want this type of power is called
supreme power the two most common forms of autocracy are absolute monarchs and
dictators an absolute monarch is usually a king and the king's child will become
the next leader of the country in a dictatorship the leader usually makes it
against the law to disagree with the government a person who disagrees with a
dictator is called a dissident and can be arrested the next type of government
we will talk about is a democracy this one might be more familiar to you a
democracy is a system of government often called the rule of the people
where most citizens can vote and elect people to rule the
country in a certain way in democracies there are political parties these are
organizations of citizens who share the same beliefs on how the country should
solve problems help citizens and interact with other countries there are
two main types of democracies there are direct democracies where every citizen
represents their own opinion and votes on every law and decision in the
government the other type is a representative democracy where the
citizens vote for other people who will vote on all of the laws and decisions in
the government the United States is a representative democracy as citizens we
vote for a president and legislators like Senators and members of the House
who write and vote on the laws and policies in the country the third type
of government is an oligarchy and oligarchy is called the rule of the
few where all of the power is in the hands of a few people usually this small
group of people are very rich and are in the same family even though there is
more than one leader an oligarchy is not like a democracy only a few select
people have the power to make new laws or change things in the country there
are many types of oligarchies that some of the most common ones are aristocracy
and theocracy an aristocracy is ruled by people who claim to be better and of
higher status than the rest of the citizens usually they are rich and have
lots of privilege and schooling in a theocracy a group of religious leaders
run the government in a theocracy all of the laws of the government are the rules
of the country's religion so let's do a quick review an autocracy has one
supreme leader who does not have to follow any laws like a king or a
dictator a democracy has leaders that are voted in by the citizens and the
citizens have a say in what the laws should be an
Oligarchy has a few leaders who are the only ones able to change laws and they
cannot be voted out by the citizens all three of these types of governments
exist in the world today there are many theories about how government should be
organized these types of ideas are called civics it's important to learn
about civics so you can be an informed citizen practice what you've learned by
playing the online games and quizzes have fun and remember to always be
clever