• Government is the system by which a community, state or country is governed or, in order words, the system by which political direction and control is exercised over its inhabitants. There are many different types of government, but all of them fall under the three basic headings of democracy, oligarchy and autocracy.
  
  

Democracy

• Democracy is form of a government in which ultimate control is retained by the people, but is exercised by leadership--in the United Kingdom and other countries, in the form of a parliament--which is periodically elected. So-called direct democracy is based on the premise that, with certain exceptions, everyone over a certain age has the right to participate in the political system, regardless of their gender, race or religion belief. In a democracy, any law passed is based on a majority decision, which is accepted by those individuals who did not, themselves, vote in favor. The United States operates a form of democracy known as federal democracy, where ultimate power is divided, in accordance with the Constitution, between a central authority and individual states.
  
  

Oligarchy

• Oligarchy is a form of government in which a few people, such as a dominant, elite group, clan or clique exercise ultimate control. This type of government existed in the former Soviet Union following the collapse of Communism. Under Communism, businesses, farms and the economy in general was controlled by the state, but business entrepreneurs, or oligarchs as they become known, took advantage of the sale of state assets in the 1990s to make vast sums of money. During the 1990s, just seven people -- including the richest man in Russia, Roman Abramovich, with an estimated fortune in 2010 of over $19 billion -- controlled 50 percent of the Soviet economy.
  
  

Autocracy

• Autocracy, also known as dictatorship, is government by a single person, who may or may not have been elected, but nevertheless exercises unlimited power over the people. Autocracy is often synonymous with despotism--that is, abuse of power and oppression of the people--and the use of military force. The most obvious example of autocracy was the government of Nazi Germany by Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and 1940s. Following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in 1934, Hitler assumed to the role of president and chancellor and the army swore an oath of unconditional obedience to him.