The answer is who holds the power.
Autocracy is a form of government where power is held by one person (king, tsar, dictator). Oligarchy is a form of government where power is held by a few individuals (usually the elite class). Democracy is a form of government where power is held by its citizens.
Difference between autocratic and democratic form of leadership
An autocracy is a government in which a single person holds unlimited political power. An oligarchy is a government in which the power to rule is held by a small, usually self-appointed elite.
"For the real difference between democracy and oligarchy is poverty and wealth. Wherever men rule by reason of their wealth, whether they be few or many, that is an oligarchy, and when the poor rule, that is a democracy. "This is from Politics by Aristotle (Forms of Government Book III, Chapters 7-8, last paragraph).
Democracy- a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. Oligarchy- a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few. Got it?(:
an oligarchy is ruled by an elite group; an absolute monarchy is ruled by a single individual.
They are both forms of government and no decisions can be made by the people.
"For the real difference between democracy and oligarchy is poverty and wealth. Wherever men rule by reason of their wealth, whether they be few or many, that is an oligarchy, and when the poor rule, that is a democracy. "This is from Politics by Aristotle (Forms of Government Book III, Chapters 7-8, last paragraph).
Aristotle used wealth and birth as criteria to differentiate between democracy and oligarchy. In a democracy, political power is held by the poor majority, while in an oligarchy, power is held by the wealthy few.
There is no difference between central and union government
There is no difference. Government and government are the same thing.