people elect representatives for a legislature,
or lawmaking body. They also elect
a president to be the head of the executive
branch. The president is not allowed
to be a member of the legislature.
Parliamentary System
The United Kingdom and many of its
former colonies have a parliamentary
system. In a parliamentary system, the
legislative and executive branches of
government are not separate. The people
elect members of a legislature, called a
parliament. But they do not elect the
head of the executive branch, called the
prime minister. The prime minister is a
member of the parliament. Usually, the
prime minister is the leader of the political
party with the most members in the
parliament.
Monarchy
Hundreds of years ago almost all countries
were monarchies. A monarch is a
king or a queen. Monarchs are not
elected. They inherit their titles from
their families.
In the kind of monarchy called an absolute
monarchy, the monarch has unlimited
power. A few absolute monarchies
still exist. But most modern monarchies,
including the United Kingdom, are limited,
or constitutional, monarchies. In a
constitutional monarchy the monarch
has little or no power. An elected parliament
and a prime minister run the
country. This is why constitutional
monarchies also count as democracies.
Two justices (high-level judges) of the
Navajo Supreme Court hear a case. The
court is a part of the judicial branch of the
government of the Navajo people.
Students outside the Arkansas Capitol protest
a proposed change to Arkansas’s constitution.
A constitution is a document that
explains how a government works.
132 Government BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
Dictatorship
Some countries have a ruler who is not a
king but still has unlimited power. Such
a person is called a dictator. Many dictators
take power by force. Some call
themselves the president. Others are
generals in the army. Only the dictator’s
political party is allowed to exist.
Levels of Government
People in modern countries live under
several levels of government at the same
time. For example, most people in the
United States live in a city or village, a
county, and a state. In general, national
governments fit together with lower
levels of government in two different
ways. They are called the unitary system
and the federal system.
Most of the world’s countries, including
the United Kingdom, France, and Japan,
have a unitary political system. In such a
system the national government supervises
local governments. Some unitary
governments allow local areas to elect
some of their leaders. In others the
national government chooses local
leaders.
A federal political system is found in
other countries, including Argentina,
Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Russia,
and the United States. In a federal system
the national government shares
power with local governments. Local
governments elect their own leaders and
make their own laws, as long as they do
not go against national law. Federal systems
are found most often in large
countries.
World Government
Throughout history disputes between
countries have often led to wars. In the
1900s countries of the world began to
work together to settle disputes peacefully
instead. These efforts led to the
United Nations (UN). The organization
was formed in 1945 after the end of
WorldWar II.
The majority of the countries of the
world belong to the UN. The UN is not
considered a world government because
it does not create and enforce laws for
individual people to follow. However,
because the UN attempts to set rules for
all the countries of the world, it could be
described as a government of governments.
#More to explore
City • Constitution • Country
• Democracy • Dictatorship • Law
• Monarchy • Parliament • Political
Party • Republic • State Government
• United Nations • United States
Government
Each of the 50 U.S. states has its own government.
The legislative or lawmaking
branch meets in the state’s Capitol.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Government 133
Graham, Martha
As a dancer and choreographer (creator
of dances), Martha Graham had a powerful
influence on modern dance. She
rejected traditional graceful styles of
dancing and used forceful movements
that expressed strong emotions.
Graham was born near Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, on May 11, 1894. She
moved to California with her family in
1908. As a teenager she studied at the
Denishawn dance school, where she
learned dance styles from around the
world. She later became a member of
the Denishawn dance company. Her
great dramatic power made her a favorite
with audiences.
In 1923 Graham went to New York,
where she danced and later taught
dance. In 1926 she formed a dance company.
Not all her early pieces were
immediately successful. They were
unlike dances that audiences were used
to seeing and were set to unfamiliar
modern music. Graham later won wide
praise for her works. Among them were
Appalachian Spring (1944), which was
about American frontier life.
In the late 1920s Graham founded a
dance school, where she developed a
distinctive dance technique. Important
dancers who studied with Graham
include Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor,
