By Ian Ziller

The world has had very different forms of government throughout history. Although America and most of western Europe are democracies, it does have a lot of difference with most. For example, the earliest forms of government were tribal, wherein the chief, usually the strongest warrior, ruled the tribe.
But once cities and culture started to develop, they started to have monarchies, with kings who were hereditary and power passing from father to son. However, both Rome and Greece had democracies in which people chose their leaders. Rome went on to become an empire that had an emperor at the head. Then, after Rome fell, the world descended into chaos and anarchy, which eventually stabilized with feudalism – a class-based government with the king at the top.
By the 15th century, feudalism fell apart and the western world had absolute monarchs who claimed their power came from God. But during the enlightenment, more limited monarchies emerged, with power based on a mixture of monarchy and democracy. Democracies then started to emerge, and that was the start of the world in which we live today, with republics and democracies.
However, it took a while, and western Europe still does have some monarchies, but others do not. Some of those monarchies are only figure heads with power relying on elected leaders. Thus, the world had changed where we have leaders who are elected, and we chose a better system than where someone rules through birth, as had been the case through much of history.