ABSTRACT
The political elements combine into a compound, a regime. A regime describes the distribution of authority among the offices and personnel that comprise the government, and the rules, formal or informal, by which the top layer of the government is filled and decisions made and implemented according to a blueprint that follows, at least in general terms, the contours of an ideology. In democracies, the party or coalition of parties that wins a free election forms a government. A free election is one where there are no restrictions on party formation or competition for office, nor of speech, press, and peaceful assembly, and where votes are counted honestly and transparently in an impartial process. A no-confidence vote or even the rejection of an important bill can bring down the government. Alternatively, a minority or caretaker government may subsist with the sufferance of other parties until the election.
