Government Unit 1

dictatorship

a form of government where one person or a small group holds absolute power without constitutional limits

autocracy

a system of government where a single person holds unlimited, absolute power and makes all decisions without external legal or constitutional limits, form of dictatorship

oligarchy

a form of government or power structure in which control rests with a small, elite group of people, type of dictatorship

democracy

a system of government where power belongs to the people, who exercise it directly or through elected leaders

direct democracy

a system of government where citizens vote directly on laws and policies instead of electing representatives to make choices for them

indirect democracy

a system of government where citizens elect officials to make laws and make decisions on their behalf

Rousseau

humans are good, but society and private property corrupt them. humans are good and need to be free, we should only give up a tiny bit of freedom

Hobbes

state of nature is bad because people are bad, give up freedom for protection (dictatorship)

Locke

social contract theory, humans are good, natural rights: life, liberty, property

unitary government

a system of political organization where a single central nation authority holds most or all of the governing power

federal government

a national system of government where power is shared between a central authority and smaller regional governments like states or provinces

confederacy

a union of independent, sovereign states that give only limited power to a weak central government

presidential government

a democratic system where an elected president serves as both the head of state and the chief executive operating independently from the legislative branch

parliamentary government

a democratic system where the executive branch gets its power from and is accountable to the legislative branch (parliament)