What does representative democracy do

Representative democracy is so popular because direct democracy is just too cumbersome, and people just too busy, to make it work. However, there are still remnants of direct democracy within representative democracies. Switzerland is often called a semi-direct democracy. Representatives handle the day-to-day administration and decision making, but citizens can propose changes to the constitution or request that a referendum be held on any law.

Other representative democracies also allow referendums to decide important issues hello, Brexit. But generally speaking, direct democracy has gone the way of the dodo. Chances are, you live in a representative democracy. A majority of people live under representative democracy in one form or another.

All EU member states are representative democracies, as are almost all countries in the Western Hemisphere. If you live in a democracy, you could say with near certainty that you live in a representative democracy. Stay in the loop. According to the Democracy Index , put out by the publisher of The Economist magazine, there are countries in the world that are either full democracies, flawed democracies, or some form of hybrid regime.

Essentially all of these democracies are representative democracies. The remainder of the surveyed countries are considered authoritarian regimes, such as North Korea, the Middle East states or other countries run by an autocrat. But not all representative democracies are the same.

Some are parliamentary constitutional monarchies, such as the United Kingdom or the Netherlands, while others are representative republics like Germany or the United States. Even countries that are de facto dictatorships maintain mechanisms of representative democracy. Russia comes to mind. And a representative democracy can either be liberal — where laws protect not only our human rights and other values, but also limit the power of our representatives — or illiberal, in which elected representatives, once in power, can more or less rule as they please.

We have jobs to go to, kids to care for, the latest Apple products to salivate over. Constitution feared that a tyrannical majority of the people could pose a new challenge to liberty.

Madison expressed his fear of majority tyranny in an October 17, , letter to Thomas Jefferson:. Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments, the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents.

This is a truth of great importance, but not yet sufficiently attended to. Whenever there is an interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done, and not less readily by [a majority of the people] than by a. Unless they are effectively limited by a well-constructed constitution, which the people observe faithfully, the winners of a democratic election could persecute the losers and prevent them from competing for control of the government in a future election.

It can invite corruption: Candidates may misrepresent their stances on issues or policy goals in order to achieve political power. While in office, politicians may act in the service of personal financial gain rather than for the benefit of their constituents sometimes to the direct detriment of their constituents.

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