Georgia SS7CG1.b

Social Studies7th GradeAfrica

The Standard

Describe the two predominant forms of democratic governments: parliamentary and presidential.

Georgia Standards of Excellence for Social Studies · Compare and contrast different forms of citizen participation in government.

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students explain how leaders are chosen and how executive and legislative powers are organized in each system. They compare the roles of a prime minister, president, and parliament.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students can identify a system from a short government scenario and support the choice with two accurate details. They can explain how the executive relates to the legislature in both systems.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think every democracy has a directly elected president or that a prime minister is elected directly by all citizens. They may also confuse a ceremonial president with a presidential system.
How to Assess It: Give students two short country scenarios. Ask them to label each system and cite one detail about leader selection and one about executive power.

Lesson moves

Give groups role cards for voters, legislators, a prime minister, and a president, then run both leader-selection processes and compare the results.
Ask students to write which system creates a closer link between executive and legislative branches, using two facts as evidence.
Play a scenario sort where teams place government descriptions under parliamentary or presidential and explain each placement for a point.
Compare how a national election forms a government in the United States and South Africa using a simple election-results chart.

Free download

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