5
American Government
Unit I, Part B
Geographic Distribution of Power
Different Types of Government
There are three types of governments
within the geographic category.
Unitary Government: All power held by a
single central agency. (Great Britain)
Federal Government: Power split between
national and local levels. (United States)
Confederate Government: An alliance of
independent states whose government only has power that the member states have given it.
Relationship Between Executive and Legislative Branches
Relationships Between Legislative and Executive Branches
Parliamentary Government: Executive
branch made up of prime minister/premier and his Cabinet (executive department heads).
They are chosen from majority party/
coalition(alliance of parties in the Legislative branch. they can be recalled at any time.)
Because of this, Canada would be referred
to as a Parliamentary Democracy.
Presidential Government:
Power shared between Executive and Legislative branches. Both Branches have the power to "check" each other (i.e. Vetoes and Impeachments).
Because of this the US is referred
to as a Presidential Democracy.
Low Participation
How to Classify Government
High Participation
Democracies: Governments where citizens
possess ultimate political authority and government rules with the consent of the people
-Direct: Pure Democracy, when people are directly involved with the government's decision making
-Representative: Republic, citizens elect representatives to act on their behalf.
There are three ways to classify government:
1. Number of people who can
participate in the governing process
3. Relationships between legislative
and executive branches.
3. Geographic distribution of power
(Where the power is.)
Authoritarian/Dictatorship - Government where citizens have no say
& leaders rule by force. These include:
- Fascist Dictatorship: Nationalistic form of Dictatorship
- Totalitarian Dictatorship: Dictator has total control over everything.
-Theocracies: Religious leaders in power
-Monarchies: Leaders are born into power