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A government is the organization, machinery, or agency, through which a political unit exercises its authority, controls and administers public policy, and directs and controls the actions of its members or subjects. The government makes laws, regulate economies, conduct relations with other countries, provide infrastructure and services, and maintain an army and a police force amongst others on behalf of the people of the country. Democracy is any system of government in which the people have the rule. The ancient Greeks used the word democracy to mean government by the many in contrast to government by the few. They key of democracy is that the people hold ultimate power. Abraham Lincoln best captured this spirit by describing democracy as a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Democratic government is opposed to an authoritative government, where the participation of its citizenry is limited or prohibited, and a state of anarchy where no form of government exists. Over the years there has been a dramatic growth in the number of political regimes that meet basic standards of procedural democracy. Such procedures include freedom of association and expression, competitive elections that determines who holds political power, and systematic constraints on the exercise of authority. The establishment of democracy in countries with no prior democratic experience, its re-establishment in countries that had experienced periods of authoritarian rule, and the expansion in the number of independent states following the demise of European and Soviet communism led to the adoption of democracy in most countries. As a result of these changes, attention has been focused on constitutional rules that guide competition for and the exercise of political authority under democracy.