Name: ___________________________Date: ______________ Class: ____________________
World Studies for Georgia Students-Grade 6
Chapter 2: Government and Civics
Section 1: What is Government?
Guided Reading
Instructions: Read the section and complete each item with words from
the passages in this section.
1. Do you believe _________________ should be “of the people, by the people,
for the people”?
2. To put it simply, _________________ is the system by which a country is
organized.
3. Still, every _______________ across time has had some form of government,
either as simple as the _______________ of a group of prehistoric people or as
complex as the government of the United States in the 21st century.
4. People create governments to keep civil _____________ and _____________
the people.
5. A county needs not only to protect its citizens from one ______________ but
also to prevent an outside _______________.
6. Government functions are usually broken down into three main branches:
_______________, ________________, and ________________.
7. The ________________ branch is usually made up of people who are elected
by the citizens of the country. Its main purpose is to create ______________ for
the country.
8. The main purpose of the _________________ branch is to _______________,
or carry out, the laws passed by the legislative branch.
9. The final branch of the government is the _________________ branch. It is in
charge of the ________________ in a country that settle disputes among
citizens and between citizens and the government.
Name: ___________________________Date: ______________ Class: ____________________
World Studies for Georgia Students-Grade 6
Chapter 2: Government and Civics
Section 2: Distribution of Power in Government
Guided Reading
Instructions: Read the section and complete each item with words from
the passages in this section.
1. Countries must decide how to organize and how to ________________ power.
2. In a _______________ government, the central (national) government holds
almost all the power. Local governments, like ________________ or
_________________, have very little power.
3. In a _______________ government, local governments hold all the power. The
________________ government is weak, and it depends on the local
governments for its existence.
4. In a _______________ government, power is shared among different levels of
government. Power is shared between the ________________(central)
government and the ________________ governments.
Name: ___________________________Date: ______________ Class: ____________________
World Studies for Georgia Students-Grade 6
Chapter 2: Government and Civics
Section 3: Citizen Participation in Government
Guided Reading
Instructions: Read the section and complete each item with words from
the passages in this section.
1. Another way to look at the structure of a government is to look at
________________ participation. In other words, how much
_________________ do the citizens in a country have in terms of rights and
selecting their leaders?
2. There are three types of citizen participation: _________________, oligarchy,
and _________________.
3. In an _________________, the ruler has absolute, or total, power to do
whatever the ruler wishes.
4. Citizens who live in an autocracy have very few ________________. They do
not get to choose their _________________.
5. There are two main types of autocracy in the world today: ________________
and absolute ________________.
6. In a _________________, one person controls the entire country. The dictator
is usually supported by the _______________.
7. In an _________________ _________________, the sovereign, such as a king
or queen, has all the power.
8. The dictator or sovereign serves as _______________ of government, that is,
the person in charge of the day-to-day business of running the country.
9. In an _________________, a political party or other small group makes all the
major decisions. The name _________________ means “rule by a few.”
Name: ___________________________Date: ______________ Class: ____________________
World Studies for Georgia Students-Grade 6
Chapter 2: Government and Civics
Section 3: Citizen Participation in Government
Guided Reading
10. In a ___________________, citizens have the power in choosing their leaders.
The word democracy comes from the Greek words demos, which means
_________________, and kratia, which means ________________.
11. In this type of government, the citizens have most of the _______________
because they have the ability to ________________ for the leaders who will
make laws.
Name: ___________________________Date: ______________ Class: ____________________
World Studies for Georgia Students-Grade 6
Chapter 2: Government and Civics
Section 4: Two Types of Democracies
Guided Reading
Instructions: Read the section and complete each item with words from
the passages in this section.
1. A ________________ government is one in which citizens vote on laws and
make decisions directly or vote for ________________ to do these tasks.
2. In a __________________ democracy, the citizens can vote for a
_________________ from a political party that they feel best represents their
views and opinions.
3. After the election, the _______________ party that wins the most seats in
parliament picks the head of government, who is called a _____________
_______________ or ______________.
4. In many parliamentary democracies, there is also a position called
______________ of state. The head of state may be a leader who does not have
very much ______________.
5. For example, the country of Australia is a _________________ monarchy with
a sovereign as head of state.
6. In a _________________ democracy, citizens elect the president as head of
government separately from the ________________.
7. The ________________ and _________________ branches are separate from
each other and usually serve as checks (having the power to stop) the other
branches’ powers.