section_path: Political system/Forms of government/Source of power
section_name: Source of power
paragraph_text: Source of power
  
  The source of power determines the difference between democracies, oligarchies, and autocracies.
  
  In a democracy, political legitimacy is based on popular sovereignty. Forms of democracy include representative democracy, direct democracy, and demarchy. These are separated by the way decisions are made, whether by elected representatives, referendums, or by citizen juries. Democracies can be either republics or constitutional monarchies.
  
  Oligarchy is a power structure where a minority rules. These may be in the form of anocracy, aristocracy, ergatocracy, geniocracy, gerontocracy, kakistocracy, kleptocracy, meritocracy, noocracy, particracy, plutocracy, stratocracy, technocracy, theocracy, or timocracy.
  
  Autocracies are either dictatorships (including military dictatorships) or absolute monarchies.