Who Rules?

Name:

Types of Governments. W hat kinds of governm ents ex ist? W hat kinds of leaders can be in
charge of a country? Think about everything you’ve ever heard of or learned and add it to this mind map.
Circle each idea you add and draw a line to connect it to the main phrase (or to another idea you added).
Keep brainstorming until you run out of room or time.

Anticipation Activity – Mind Map

Who Rules? Name:

Types of Governments. W hat kinds of governm ents ex ist? W hat kinds of leaders can be in
charge of a country? Think about everything you’ve ever heard of or learned and add it to this mind map.
Circle each idea you add and draw a line to connect it to the main phrase (or to another idea you added).
Keep brainstorming until you run out of room or time.

Anticipation Activity – Mind Map

Who Rules? Name:

Someone’s Got to Be In Charge

If you compared all the governments in the world, you would find one
thing in common: Someone is in charge. The question is, who? There
are many different forms of government. Some have one leader who
has all the control. Others give power to the people. Here are some
forms of government that exist (or have existed) in the world:

Me, Myself, and I

An autocracy is a government in which one person has all the
power. There are two main types of autocracy: a monarchy and a
dictatorship.
In a monarchy, a king or queen rules the country. The king or
queen is known as a monarch. Monarchs usually come to power
through their family line: The current king or queen’s oldest child
becomes the next king or queen. In some monarchies, especially
those in historical times, the monarch held all the power and had
the final say over the government. In modern times, monarchs
usually share power with other parts of government. Often they are
also subject to the country’s constitution.
A dictatorship is a form of government where one leader has
absolute control over citizens’ lives. If there is a constitution, the
dictator has control over that, too—so it doesn’t mean much.
Although other parts of the government may exist, such as courts or
a lawmaking body, these branches always do what the dictator
King Harald V of Norway with his wife, wants them to do. They do not represent citizens.
Queen Sonja. Norway is a constitutional
monarchy. The king is the head of state
and has a mainly ceremonial role. The
actual government is a democracy.

Power to the People!

In a democracy, citizens hold the political power. There are two
fundamental types of democracies:
In a representative democracy, citizens elect leaders to represent
their rights and interests in government. The elected leaders, or
representatives, do the day-to-day work of governing the country:
They consider the issues, work to find solutions, pass laws, and do
all of the other things necessary to keep a country going. Citizens
hold the ultimate power, though, because if they don’t like what A man votes in Peru.
their representatives are doing, they can vote in new ones!
In a direct democracy, there are no representatives. Citizens are
directly involved in the day-to-day work of governing the country.
Citizens might be required to participate in lawmaking or act as
judges, for example. The best example of this was in the ancient
Greek city-state called Athens. Most modern countries are too large
for a direct democracy to work.

The Peruvian legislature

Reading p.1
Who Rules? Name:

We, Ourselves, and… um… Us

In an oligarchy (OH-lih-gar-kee), a small group of people has all
the power. Oligarchy is a Greek word that means “rule by a few.”
Sometimes this means that only a certain group has political
rights, such as members of one political party, one social class, or
one race. For example, in some societies, only noble families who
owned land could participate in politics. An oligarchy can also
mean that a few people control the country. For example, a junta
is a small group of people—usually military officers—who rule a
country after taking it over by force. A junta often operates much
like a dictatorship, except that several people share power. From 1962 to 2011, Myanmar (also known
as Burma) was ruled by a military junta
that was condemned by the world for its
human rights violations.

Religious Rule
A theocracy is a government that recognizes God or a divine being as
the ultimate authority. (“Theo” is a Greek word that means god.) In a
theocracy, religious law is used to settle disputes and rule the people.
A theocracy can also be a democracy, dictatorship, monarchy, or just
about any other kind of government. For example, the Republic of
Iran recognizes Islamic law, but Iran’s citizens vote to elect their
leaders. Modern theocracies are usually found in countries where the
Crown of the Holy Roman Empire, population is strongly religious.
which was tied to the Catholic church

A
and lasted from the 10th—19th century.

Rule by None
In an anarchy, nobody is in control—or everyone is, depending on how
you look at it. Sometimes the word anarchy is used to refer to an out-of-
control mob. When it comes to government, anarchy would be one way
to describe the human state of existence before any governments
developed. It would be similar to the way animals live in the wild, with
everyone looking out for themselves. Today, people who call themselves
anarchists usually believe that people should be allowed to freely
associate together without being subject to any nation or government.
There are no countries that have anarchy as their form of government.
An A inside a circle is the traditional
symbol for anarchy.

 Where would you put theocracy on this chart?

Reading p.2
Who Rules? Name:

A. Identify That Government! I dentify the form (s) of governm ent that each country has
or had.

Forms of government: Forms of government:

______________________ ______________________
and and
______________________ ______________________

Forms of government:
Form of government: ______________________
______________________ and
______________________

Forms of government: Form of government:

______________________ ______________________
and
______________________

Worksheet p.1
Who Rules? Name:

B. True or False? Use w hat you learned in the reading and in Ex ercise A to fill in the chart

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C. Vocabulary. Solve the crossw ord puzzle using vocabulary from the reading.

Across
1
3. Type of democracy where citizens elect
2 leaders to represent them in government
3
7. A small group that rules a country after
taking it over by force
9. One person has all the power
4 5 6 10. Type of democracy where citizens are
7
involved in day-to-day government
Down
1. Recognizes God as the ultimate authority
8 in government and law
2. One leader has absolute control over
citizens’ lives
4. Citizens hold the political power
9 5. A small group of people has all the power
10 6. People are not subject to any nation or
government
8. A king or queen rules the country

Worksheet p.2