Government: Difference between revisions

The most common type of [[government]] in the Western world is called [[democracy]]. In democracies, people in a country can vote during elections for representatives or political parties that they prefer. The people in democracies can elect representatives who will sit on [[legislature]]s such as the [[Parliament]] or [[Congress]]. [[political party|Political parties]] are organizations of people with similar ideas about how a country or region should be governed. Different political parties have different ideas about how the government should handle different problems. Democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people.

A [[monarchy]] is a government ruled by a [[king]], [[Queen Regnantregnant|queen]], [[emperor]] or empress who inherits their position from their family, which is often called the "royal family." There are two types of monarchies: absolute monarchies and constitutional monarchies. In an [[absolute monarchy]], the ruler has no limits on their wishes or powers. In a [[constitutional monarchy]] a ruler's powers are limited by a document called a [[constitution]].

Under a [[dictatorship]], the government is run by one person who has all the power over the people in a country. A dictatorship may also be called one-man rule, or [[autocracy]]. orPlato called it [[Tyrant|tyranny]].

In modern times, a dictator's rule is not stopped by any laws, [[constitutions]], or other [[social]] and [[political]] institutions, and can last many years or even decades. After leaving the [[Spanish Empire]], many countries in [[Latin America]] were dictatorships. World War II was partly a war between dictators, and later new countries in [[Asia]] and [[Africa]] also were ruled by dictators. Examples of dictators include [[Josef Stalin]], [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Augusto Pinochet]], [[Idi Amin]], [[Muammar al-Qaddafi]], and [[Gamal Abdul Nasser]]. These men ruled from when they took power until when they died, because they would not let anyone else take power from them. The only woman dictator in the modern era was [[Indira Gandhi]].[https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/indias-first-dictatorship-the-emergency-19751977][https://thewire.in/law/prashant-bhushan-tweets-supreme-court-india-democracy]

An [[oligarchy]] is a government ruled by a small group of powerful people. These people may spread power equally or not equally. More so a different version of a monarchy, where everyone makes [[decision|decisions]] together instead of one person making them all or telling people what to do, such as in a Dictatorship. An oligarchy is different from a true [[democracy]] because very few people are given the chance to change things. An oligarchy does not have to be hereditary or passed down from father to son.

An oligarchy does not have one clear ruler, but several powerful people. Some past examples of oligarchy are the former [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] and [[Apartheid]] [[South Africa]]. A fictional example is the [[dystopia]]n society of ''Oceania'' in the book [[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]. Some critics of [[representative democracy]] think of the [[United States]] as an oligarchy. Robert Michel's Iron Law of Oligarchy says all democratic organizations become oligarchies.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Iron law of oligarchy {{!}} Power Dynamics & Social Hierarchy {{!}} Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/iron-law-of-oligarchy|access-date=2024-05-27|website=www.britannica.com|language=en}}</ref> This view is shared by [[anarchism|anarchists]] and some [[libertarianism|libertarians]]. An oligarchy may have a leader in the ruling group.