A political regime is a set of political structures that make up a state. A political regime may also be known as a form of government, a state system, or a political system. The term political regime may also sometimes refer to a specific ruler or set of rulers within a political system.
There are many different types of political regimes in the modern world, and many more have existed historically. These range from the directly-democratic political regime of Anarchism to totalitarian regimes such as Military Dictatorships or Fascism.
The political system that Americans are most familiar with is Representative Democracy. This is a political system in which representatives are directly elected by the citizenry, and these representatives then make political decisions for the populace, with the assumption that their decisions will reflect the general will of the Republic. This can be compared to a Direct Democracy, in which the citizenry directly votes on all issues of importance.