Lyndon M.

Cortez
II-AB PS - 103

Centralized Government
A centralized (US, Oxford English) or centralised (UK) government is one in which power or legal authority is exerted or coordinated by a de facto political executive to which federal states, local authorities, and smaller units are considered subject. In a national context, centralization occurs in the transfer of power to a typically sovereign nation state. All constituted governments are, to some degree, necessarily centralized, in the sense that a theoretically federal state exerts an authority or prerogative beyond that of its constituent parts. To the extent that a base unit of society usually conceived as an individual citizen vests authority in a larger unit, such as the state or the local community, authority is centralized. The extent to which this ought to occur, and the ways in which centralized government evolves, forms part of social contract theory.

Elected Government
How the government is elected The political party which wins the majority of seats in the House of Representatives will form the government. As there are 150 seats in the House of Representatives, the party which forms government must win 75 + 1 seats. Political parties that do not hold a majority of seats in the House may choose to join with another party so that, together, they will hold the majority and therefore be eligible to form government. When two parties choose to work in partnership like this they are often referred to as a coalition. The previous Howard government was an example of a coalition government. Neither the Liberal nor National parties had enough seats in their own right to form government, however by choosing to work in coalition, they secured a majority of seats in the House of Representatives. The government is not required to hold a majority in the Senate in order to govern. In fact, it is uncommon for the party in government to control both houses. How Members of Parliament are elected Members of Parliament are elected for a term of three years using the preferential voting system. Under this system, the candidate who ultimately wins the majority of votes is elected. However, because there are multiple candidates for each seat in parliament, it is necessary to use a process of elimination, so that only two candidates remain. Whichever of these candidates has the majority of votes is elected. Under the preferential system, voters are required to rank each candidate in order of preference by placing numbers next to their names on the ballot paper. So, for example, if there are five candidates, voters will be required to number the candidates in order from one to five.

If the candidate who received the voters first preference is eliminated during the first count because he or she received the lowest number of votes, the vote will then be allocated to whichever candidate was the voters second preference. If this candidate is also eliminated, the vote will be allocated to the voters third preference, and so forth until there are only two candidates remaining. The winning candidate will be whichever of these candidates wins the most votes after all preferences have been allocated between the two remaining candidates. Preferential voting is used in the House of Representatives because it is designed to result in the election of a person who receives the broadest support from the electorate, even though that person may not be the first choice of the majority of voters in the electorate. The use of the preferential voting system makes it difficult for independents and minor parties to secure seats in the House of Representatives. The proportion of women in the House currently 38 out of 150 seats is also negatively impacted by this voting system. This is because most successful candidates are members of the two major parties, so the number of women elected depends on the number of women preselected by the major parties to stand as candidates. How Senators are elected Senators are elected for a term of six years on a rotational basis. So, while each state has 12 Senators and each territory two, only half of these will face reelection at a normal federal election, while the other half will continue to serve the remainder of their six year term until the following election. Senators are elected according to a more complex system of counting votes called proportional representation. This system helps to ensure that a wider range of political parties is elected in accordance with their share of the vote. It also enables multiple Senators to be elected in each state. According to proportional representation, a candidate must obtain a certain proportion of the votes, called a quota in order to be elected. A quota is determined by dividing the total number of votes by one more than the number of candidates, then adding one. For example, if the total number of votes in a

state is 1.4 million and six Senators are to be elected, the quota will be 200,001 (1,400,000 divided by seven plus one). If a candidate receives more than this number of votes, each additional vote will be distributed in accordance with the preferences that particular voter. If all six positions have not been filled by candidates who obtained quotas in the first round of counting, the least successful candidate will be eliminated and the votes received by that candidate will be distributed according to the preferences of those who voted for the candidate. This process will continue until all Senate positions have been filled by candidates achieving quotas. The use of proportional representation means that the Senate arguably achieves a more accurate representation of the Australian community. The Senate has both a greater percentage of women, and a greater percentage of younger people than the House of Representatives. Proportional representation also makes it easier for independent and minor party candidates to be elected to the Senate. Find out more about how Senators are elected.

Hereditary Government (Hereditary monarchy)

The English used in this article may not be easy for everybody to understand. You can help Wikipedia by reading Wikipedia:How to write Simple English pages, then simplifying the article. (January 2012) . A hereditary monarchy is a type of government where a monarch (usually a king or queen) becomes the monarch because he or she is related to the last monarch. It is the most common sort of monarchy, and is the form used by almost all of the world's monarchies today. Hereditary monarchy In a hereditary monarchy, all the monarchs come from the same family, and the crown is passed down from one member of the family to another. The hereditary system can be more stable, and can command loyalty, but at other times has seen great bloodshed over the question of succession. When the king or queen of a hereditary monarchy dies or quits the throne (abdicates), the crown is generally passed to one of his or her children, often to the oldest. When that child dies, the crown will be then passed to his or her child, or, if he or she has no child, to a sister, brother, niece, nephew, cousin, or some other relative. Hereditary monarchies most usually arrange the succession by a law that creates an order of succession. This way, it is known beforehand who will be the next monarch. Nowadays, the order of succession in hereditary monarchies is often based on the idea of primogeniture (oldest born), but there have been other methods that were much more common in the past. Succession In the past, there were differences in systems of succession, often depending on whether only men can succeed, or whether both men and women could succeed. Agnatic succession

Agnatic succession means women are not allowed to succeed, or pass the succession from their fathers to their children. Agnates are relatives who have a common ancestor in an unbroken male line, from father to father. Cognatic succession Cognatic succession means both men and women can succeed. Women usually are only allowed succeed if there is no male in the family. For example, in the United Kingdom, Princess Anne comes after her younger brothers (and her nephews and nieces) in the line of succession. In the 1970s, Sweden changed from agnatic succession to "fully-cognatic" succession. This means the line of succession is based on age, not sex. This meant that when Princess Victoria of Sweden was born, she could never become queen, and when her younger brother was born he became crown prince (heir to the throne) -- but then the law changed, and Victoria became crown princess. Elective monarchy An elective monarchy can sometimes seem to be a hereditary monarch. For example, only members of one family may be allowed to be elected; or before the monarch dies, they might have his chosen heir (son, daughter, brother, sister, or other relative) elected. In Europe, the Holy Roman Empire was an elective monarchy, but for many hundreds of years, only the head of the Habsburg family was elected. In 1806, the Holy Roman Emperor abolished the empire and instead became the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, a hereditary monarch.

Capitalism Government (Capitalism)

Capitalism is an economic system that is based on private ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods or services for profit.[1] Other elements central to capitalism include competitive markets, wage labor and capital accumulation.[2] There are multiple variants of capitalism, including laissez-faire, welfare capitalism and state capitalism. Capitalism is considered to have been applied in a variety of historical cases, varying in time, geography, politics, and culture.[3] There is general agreement that capitalism became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism.[4] Competitive markets may also be found in market-based alternatives to capitalism such as market socialism and co-operative economics. Economists, political economists and historians have taken different perspectives on the analysis of capitalism. Economists usually emphasize the degree to which government does not have control over markets (laissez faire), as well as the importance of property rights.[5][6] Most political economists emphasize private property as well, in addition to power relations, wage labor, class, and the uniqueness of capitalism as a historical formation.[7] The extent to which different markets are free, as well as the rules defining private property, is a matter of politics and policy. Many states have what are termed mixed economies, referring to the varying degree of planned and market-driven elements in a state's economic system.[7] A number of political ideologies have emerged in support of various types of capitalism, the most prominent being economic liberalism. The term capitalism gradually spread throughout the Western world in the 19th and 20th centuries largely through the writings of Karl Marx.[3]