until it has become an all-powerful, complex machine, controlling in
many ways the actions, and even the lives of its citizens.

For thousands of years, governments have been developing and changing in
form and functions, and a very large part of the history of the nations
of the globe is identified with the history of the development and
changes of their governments. As new conditions and needs have arisen,
governments have adapted themselves to them. In some cases this has been
done peacefully, as in England, and in others violently, by
revolutionary means, as in France. In some cases functions previously
exercised have been relinquished, in others, new powers have been
assumed; but in the majority of cases, the change has been merely in the
manner of exercising this or that power.

All peoples have not the same characteristics, nor have they developed
under the same conditions of climate, soil or situation. Different
nations have, therefore, developed for themselves different forms of
government. Yet these governments, however different in their structures
and administration, are in all cases distinctly referable to four well
defined types: Monarchy, Aristocracy, Democracy, and the Republic.
_#Monarchy.#_--A monarchy is a nation at whose head is a personal ruler,
called King, Emperor, or Czar, who has control of the government,
appoints the principal officers of state, and to whom in theory at
least, these appointees are responsible for their actions. Thus England,
Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, and others are monarchies. The sovereign
holds his position for life, and usually acquires his throne by
inheritance. Where the crown is nominally elective, as in England,
kingship is practically hereditary, the regular line of descent being
departed from only upon rare occasions.