Which form of government is best?
The president of your society used to be very effective – he defended the nation against an attack from a foreign army, he was able to get different political parties to agree on things, and he was elected twice. But two years before the end of his term as president he messed up – he was caught stealing money from the government and using it to buy houses and then sell them. Many people want him to be removed from power, but others believe that he is still a good president and deserves to finish his term, but be fined a huge amount of money as punishment for what he did. Which form of government would be the best to have in this situation? Why?

In this situation where the head of state has been engaging in corruption it would be good to have a representative democracy or what is sometimes called indirect democracy. In this kind of government people vote for their leaders and they are charged with representing them. The laws in society are therefore representative of the people and the representatives can vote on whether to remove the leader ahead of his term or whether some other sanction is appropriate. There are checks and balances in this kind of system that assures the executive does not gain too much power. It is also unlikely this leader will be voted in for a third term given his corrupt practices.