Standards

1
Standards

• SS7CG1 The student will compare and contrast
  various forms of government.
• a. Describe the ways government systems
  distribute power unitary, confederation, and
  federal.
• b. Explain how governments determine citizen
  participation autocratic, oligarchic, and
  democratic.
• c. Describe the two predominant forms of
  democratic governments parliamentary and
  presidential.

2

• There are two main ways to think about
  governments
• Government divides power among itself. Who has
  power the central government or regional (state )
  government? Examples of this are Unitary,
  Confederation, and Federal governments.
• Government shares power with the citizens. This
  is called Citizen Participation. If one person
  has all the power citizen participation is low,
  if many people have power (can vote) citizen
  participation is high.
• Governments ALWAYS divide power among themselves
  (Central and Regions) and between the government
  and people (citizen participation). You need to
  know both for all governments studied.

3
Unitary Confederation Federation
Central Power Has all power Has little or no power Shares power with Regional/State power
Regional / State Power Very limited power, given by Central government Hold MOST power Shares power with Central / Federal power
How government divides power to itself
Autocracy Oligarchy Democracy
Number of people in Government 1 few Most
Role of Citizen Participation None Small or small number of people Almost all
Citizen Participation
4
Unitary
Power is held by one central power Regions may
have limited power given to them by the state
Regional Authority
Central Authority
Regional Authority
Regional Authority
Regional Authority
5
Regional Authority
Regional Authority
Confederation
Central Authority
Regional Authority
Regional Authority

• Voluntary association of independent states
  that often only delegate a few powers to the
  central authority.
• Less binding than a federation.

6
Federation / Federal
Power is divided between one central and several
regional authorities.
Regional Authority
Regional Authority
Central Authority
Regional Authority
Regional Authority
7
Citizen Participation
Autocratic

• Democracy

Oligarchic
Some General Citizens Participation
No Citizen Participation
Government Power shared by many
large Citizen Participation
Government Power by 1
Government Power by few
8
Autocratic
One person possesses unlimited power. The citizen
has limited, if any, role in government.
9
Autocracy

• The oldest form of government.
• Maintain power through inheritance or ruthless
  use of military and police power.
• Types
• ? Dictatorship
• ?Monarchy

10
Oligarchy

• The group gets its power from military power,
  social power, wealth, religion or a combination.
• Political opposition is usually suppressed-
  sometimes violently.
• Examples- Communist countries such as China or
  Nobility in Medieval Europe

Government by the few. The citizen has a very
limited role.
11
Democracy
People play greater role in deciding government
leaders, often by voting.
Parliamentary People vote for the Political
party they feel best represents their views.
May have a Prime Minister elected by the
legislature.
Presidential A system of government in which
the president is constitutionally independent of
the legislature. President is elected directly
by people.