Chapter 2
Types of Government
Three ways to classify governments:
1. Systems of government
2. Relationship between levels of
government
3. Methods of selecting the executive
Systems of Government
Monarchy
 Dictatorship
 Anarchy
 Popular government

Dictatorship
In a dictatorship, the government acts
without the consent of the people.
 Totalitarianism
 Autocracy
 Oligarchy

Anarchy
An absence of government
 Because of human depravity, anarchy,
instead of leading to maximum liberty,
leads to a state of lawlessness.
 Jeremiah 17:9

 The heart is deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked: who can know it?
Popular Governments
Power resides in the people.
 Direct democracy

Popular Governments

Indirect democracy
– people choose
their peers represent
them.
 Republic – “a state in
which the supreme
power rests in the
people and their
elected
representatives or
officers.
Types of Government
Three ways to classify governments:
1. Systems of government
2. Relationship between levels of
government
Relationship Between Levels of
Government
Unitary
Federal
Confederate
Unitary
All power from
the people
(unlike
dictatorship)
Power resides
in central
government
Local units
may help
administer
government.
Examples: Great Britain, Japan, France, Israel
Relationship Between Levels of
Government

Federal Governments – Federalism

Examples: United States, Brazil, India
Relationship Between Levels of
Government

Confederate
Governments
 Examples: Articles of
Confederation,
Confederate States of
America, European
Union (EU)
Types of Government
Three ways to classify governments:
1. Systems of government
2. Relationship between levels of
government
3. Methods of selecting the executive
Methods of Selecting the
Executive
Presidential System – people directly
elect the president.
 Question: Do the people directly elect
the President of the United States?
 Answer: No. The Electoral College
elects the president.

Methods of Selecting the
Executive

Parliamentary System
 People elect their representatives to
Parliament.
○ Candidate of the
party with the most votes
in each district wins.
 The majority party in the parliament chooses
the executive (prime minister).
 Examples: Great Britain, France, Japan,
Indonesia
Which
system is
better: Presidential or
Parliamentary?

p. 18
Levels of American Government
National
 State
 Local

National Government

The U.S. Constitution LIMITS the power
of the national government by allowing it
to have certain DELEGATED POWERS.
National Government
Legislative
Executive
Judicial
Legislative Branch



Makes the laws
Closest ties to the
people: directly
elected
Two houses
 House of
Representatives
 Senate
Executive Branch




Enforces the laws
President
Vice President
Advisors
○ EOP
○ Cabinet
Judicial Branch




Interprets the laws
Are the laws passed
by Congress and
the states consistent
with the
Constitution?
Supreme Court
Lower Courts
State Government
Fifty (50) states
 States keep all power not delegated to
the national government (RESERVED
POWERS) or prohibited to the states by
the Constitution (PROHIBITED
POWERS).
 States all have their own constitutions.

State Government

Reserved Powers– 10th Amendment
 Police, educate, land-use laws, licensing,
etc.

Prohibited Powers – Keeps certain
powers in the hands of the national
government.
 Coin money, make treaties, import/export
taxes, raise a military force in peacetime,
etc.
Review Quiz
What are the levels of U.S. government?
 What are the branches of U.S.
government?
 What is the function of the legislative
branch?
 What is the function of the executive
branch?
 What is the function of the judicial
branch?

Answers
1. national, state, local
 2. legislative, executive, judicial
 3. make laws
 4. enforce the laws
 5. interpret the laws
