A political regime is the norms and rules which govern how politics are done in a country. The laws can be traditionally upheld, such as in the United Kingdom, where they still have the monarch, or formal in the constitution, such as in the USA, whereby a president can only run for two terms. Besides, these rules determine how other government institutions such as the legislature, judiciary, and executive relate to each other.
There are four types of regimes which include democratic, autocratic, and totalitarian regimes. In a democratic regime, there are free and fair elections, and the people get to choose whom they want to lead the government.
Examples include the USA, India, Japan, and France. An autocratic regime is one in that leaders do not get to power through a democratic process but use means such as a coup, appointment by oligarchs, rigging, hereditary, and exile of the former president.
Activists are prevented from reaching power, and people in these regimes do not have to engage in politics. Examples are Rwanda, Russia, China, Venezuela, and Singapore. A Totalitarian regime has no democracy; the system is more like an autocratic regime; however, the government uses repressive methods to control citizens.
These regimes hinder their enemies from participating in politics and silence their citizens regarding politics and their leaders. For instance, they are not allowed to question or make a joke about the president. Examples of totalitarian regimes include North Korea.