anarchy
- no one is making the decisions in government
- believes in the elimination of the state and the instead advocates self-rule by individuals in autonomous communities (stateless societies)
  - "stateless society" can also apply to groups of people without a physical area/ leader to call their own
autocracy
- only one person has dominant power and makes all the decision in government
- power controlled by a monarch, political dictator, or a religious leader
- do not hold elections
oligarchy
- political power rests with a small, elite group that makes all of the decisions in government; tend to be exclusionary and not allow new groups into it
- hold elections; tend to engage in practices that limit opponents
- competitive oligarchy
  - share power but tend to arise as transitional governments that have come out of a dictatorship
- plutocracy
  - led by only a few, super wealthy individuals
polyarchy
- hold elections; tend to hold fair elections
- consist of a rule by a group with mass participation that relies on a leadership that is managed by competing elites
- democratic in that there is some choice and competition for power, but undemocratic in that mas participation is limited to only what the wealthy elites permit
democracy
- everyone given the opportunity to participate in government and power distributed evenly and more widely diffused
- representative democracy
  - people choose individuals to run government and to make decisions for them
communist
- all goods and production are owned equally, no individual ownership
socialist
- operates under the belief that the inequalities that exist in society are unjust and the government provides extensive social services to its citizens