By Daryl R. Evans

General Characteristics of Agricultural, Industrial, and Information Age Political Systems

Agricultural Age Political Systems:Pre-democratic political systems of various kinds, in fuedal systems and ancient empires.

Industrial Age Political Systems: Representative democracy and a multiparty political system for the rising middle class in the West, with democracy based on an informed, educated middle class; democratic centralism in socialist countries, with population also educated.

Information Age Political Systems: Global democratization trends, in former communist and South countries today, with modern technologies making control of information to citizens by dictators difficult. Social-political change on important issues initatied by direct, grass-roots, participatory democracy involving media coverage, electronic networking on the internet, FAXS, and other forms oe electronic democracy. Increasing numbers of issues (arms control; free trade; AIDS; pollution; and terrorism) require global cooperation and/ or local action, not just national policies, to solve them.

Information/Data on Russia's Political System

The Russian Federation is made up of 21 autonomous republics with the capital being in Moscow. It has a three branch system of goverment modeled after the United States. The executive branch is headed by Boris Nikolayevick Yelstin(since 12 June 1991). The legislative branch is a bicameral federal assembly, it consists of the State Duma and the Federal Council. The State Duma has 450 members that are elected throughout the country based on population of the districts. The