Governments provide and manage essential services for the public, and have the power to make laws. They determine how their country will interact with other countries around the world. For the people who work to govern a country, that is a huge responsibility. This book looks at some different kinds of governments,and also the way governments work in modern democracies, like Australia and New Zealand. It's interesting to discover that the real responsibility for how we are governed lies not only with prime ministers, monarchs and politicians, but with everyday people who have a very powerful tool at their fingertips - the right to vote.