By Joseph L. Bass

Americans are witnessing a 10-week preparation for a unique event in the history of the world.

Because of the inadequacy of our history books and school curriculums, few recognize its importance and how the event is different. This is a result of our public secondary schools no longer including the study of civics and comparisons of governmental systems. Americans no longer understand the foundations of our unique system of government and how it compares with other nations.

The historic event will be when President Barack Obama peacefully hands over executive power to President Donald Trump, our new head of state.

Other nations that consider themselves “democracies” have forms of government different from ours. For example, in England, the head-of-state role is passed down in a family. When Queen Elizabeth dies, her son will automatically become head of state as king. The royal family maintains a list of people in line to be head of state based on the possibility that several might die in a short period.

All of this is usually peaceful, but the English people have no say in who will be their king or queen. If the royal family disagrees on who is next in line, a civil war can occur, such as the War of the Roses in which one wannabe-king’s supporters had to kill the other wannabe-king in order to take power.

In some other “democracies,” a small group of oligarchs determine who will be head of state through several power-and-control mechanisms. Mexico is an example.

In other nations, whoever has the support of a military that is able to defeat another faction’s military becomes head of state. We witness what is going on in Iraq and Syria today as examples of this violent process.

In many nations, the ruling elite can only stay in power by maintaining a network of secret police that monitors people’s behavior that might indicate efforts to undermine the elite’s power. It is not uncommon for such nations to resort to domestic terrorism and torture to keep people in line.

All across the Middle East and North Africa, we see people attempting to rise up against the ruling class and establish a government that works for the people, instead of one that only works for the benefit of a small, rich, elite group.

It is unfortunate that many Americans are uninformed about how our system of government is different from other national systems. Far too many uninformed Americans would never notice if our government were slowly transitioning in ways that undermined our fundamental form of government.

These people do not understand the uniqueness of what will occur on Jan. 20, 2017.

Joseph L. Bass is the executive director of ABetterSociety.Info Inc., a nonprofit organization in Hobson. Email him at ABetterSociety1@aol.com.