Sociology › Section Q · Government and politics › Topic Q.2
Forms of government
Nearly 200 countries govern themselves in different ways, from hereditary kingdoms to mass democracies. Sorting them by who rules, how rulers gain power and what limits them shows how a political system shapes freedom and inequality.
In this topic
- Why the form matters
- Three questions for any government
- Monarchy
- Oligarchy
- Dictatorship
- Democracy
- Direct and representative democracy
- Cases in between
- Worked example: classifying four governments
- Worked example: are elections enough?
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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