By Ian Ziller

It is assumed that most tribal governments were democratic in structure. Throughout the history of

humankind there have been lots of societies that were tribal, so when we think of the forms of

governments the question is, Were they more democratic or authoritarian monarchies?

The answer is that it has varied. For example, the Native American tribes had a sort of blend of

both democracy and monarchy. In their government structure they had no elections, but on the other

hand they did have a sense of popular consent in which the people agreed and accepted to be ruled by a

person, and he could be removed by someone if the people wanted him gone. Also, they had a sense of

monarchy in the fact that they had most of their rules come from the same family, and there was one

man who was in charge of the tribe. So that is how Native American tribes were both monarchy and

democracy.