<P> Countries with monarchy attributes are those where a family or group of families (rarely another type of group), called the royalty, represents national identity, with power traditionally assigned to one of its individuals, called the monarch, who mostly rule kingdoms . The actual role of the monarch and other members of royalty varies from purely symbolical (crowned republic) to partial and restricted (constitutional monarchy) to completely despotic (absolute monarchy). Traditionally and in most cases, the post of the monarch is inherited, but there are also elective monarchies where the monarch is elected . </P> <P> Rule by authoritarian governments is identified in societies where a specific set of people possess the authority of the state in a republic or union . It is a political system controlled by unelected rulers who usually permit some degree of individual freedom . Rule by a totalitarian government is characterised by a highly centralised and coercive authority that regulates nearly every aspect of public and private life . </P> <P> In a general sense, in a democracy, all the people of a state or polity are involved in making decisions about its affairs . Also refer to the rule by a government chosen by election where most of the populace are enfranchised . The key distinction between a democracy and other forms of constitutional government is usually taken to be that the right to vote is not limited by a person's wealth or race (the main qualification for enfranchisement is usually having reached a certain age). A democratic government is, therefore, one supported (at least at the time of the election) by a majority of the populace (provided the election was held fairly). A "majority" may be defined in different ways . There are many "power - sharing" (usually in countries where people mainly identify themselves by race or religion) or "electoral - college" or "constituency" systems where the government is not chosen by a simple one - vote - per - person headcount . </P> <P> In democracies, large proportions of the population may vote, either to make decisions or to choose representatives to make decisions . Commonly significant in democracies are political parties, which are groups of people with similar ideas about how a country or region should be governed . Different political parties have different ideas about how the government should handle different problems . </P>

A government that is chosen by its citizens is called a