Study Questions

1. What is the difference between government institutions and government structures? How many examples of structures and institutions can you identify?

2. Consider the impact of political culture on government structures and institutions and how the political culture affects what is possible in a given nation. How might this concept help to explain some of the difficulties that the United States has had with Iraq and other countries around the world?

3. Explain the role institutions play in lending legitimacy to government. Provide examples.

4. Explain the differences among unitary, federal, and confederal systems. Under what circumstances might one system be preferred over another?

5 How did Aristotle differentiate among the types of government, and what basic types did he identify?  What factors are likely to stand in the way of a nation that tries to create ideal institutions?

6. Discuss why Democracy fell into what Aristotle classified a perverted type of government. Does this hold true for all types of Democracy (i.e. Direct Democracy, Representative Democracy). Explain.