REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: CHARACTERISTICS AND EXAMPLES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The representative democracy is a form of social organization under which political power rests with the citizens, but they do not exercise it directly and in -such as in the directas- democracies, but by electing representatives.

This election is carried out through free and periodic voting, this being the mechanism available to the people to exercise their power. Hence, representative democracy is also known as indirect democracy.

The representatives must be submitted to the decision of the majority among a series of political proposals. The candidates with the highest number of votes are those who represent the people in the State and have the legitimacy to act and make decisions on behalf of the citizens.

Historical background

Some authors point out that the first democratic models date back to 400 BC. C. and that are located in the north of India; however, in most of the political literature the origin of democracy is located in ancient Greece, in the city-state of Athens, in 508 BC. C.

To a large extent, this is because it was this civilization that coined the Greek term "democracy," which translates to "power of the people" or "government of the people."

In Athens - unlike what happened in other cities in that century, where decisions were made by the king or emperor - power fell to the assembly of citizens.

The first precedents of representative democracy occurred there, where the representatives were chosen by lot. However, in the city-state of Athens women, slaves and foreigners were not considered citizens; therefore, only a small part of the population of Athens participated in democracy.

Roman democracy was very similar to Athenian, but Roman Stoicism's defense of the rights of the underprivileged laid the foundations of modern democratic theory.

characteristics

The following characteristics are typical of representative democracies. However, the implementation of this governance model can vary considerably from one country to another. However, these characteristics are always more or less present:

- There are regular elections. For a State to be subject to a representative democracy, the existence of regular elections is necessary. The simple fact that elections are held does not imply a democracy; they must be held regularly and with controls that guarantee the transparency of the results.

- There are political parties formed by a group of people who represent the particular interests of a segment of the population. Therefore, they are organizations with an ideological charge.

- The competition for the votes of the political parties during the elections is authentic and honest.

- Universal suffrage (right to vote for elected public office of all adult citizens without distinction of race, belief, sex or social position) and the equity of the vote are applied.

- There is a Constitution that regulates the power of political representatives.

- There is an Executive Power, such as presidencies or mayors; and a Legislative Branch, such as congresses or chambers, frequently separated.

- There is an independent Judicial Power, such as the Supreme Court, which ensures that decisions made by political representatives do not contradict what is established in the Constitution.

- Decision-making is much simpler and more efficient than in direct democracy. In representative democracy, decision-making depends only on the opinion of a select few and not on the millions of people who live in a country.

- There is a high risk of corruption. Although the political representatives of the people must pursue the common good, sometimes they succumb to pressure from small groups with economic power, acting to the detriment of the people.

Examples of countries with representative democracy

Representative democracy is the most widely used political system in the world. Here are three examples of countries with this type of government and its peculiarities:

U.S

The United States is one of the oldest and most stable representative democracies in the world. The model of the State of this country is republican and federal.

This means that there is no monarchy and that a large central government coexists with much smaller state governments.

The delegation of power by the people is carried out through the election of the president of the central government, the members of Congress and the representatives of the different state governments. The Executive Power is held by the President, the Legislative by Congress and the Judicial by the Supreme Court.

UK

The United Kingdom is a parliamentary monarchy. Despite the fact that the abolition of the monarchy is one of the characteristics associated with democracy, some societies such as Breton have systems in which democracy and monarchy coexist.

Another peculiarity of the political model in this country is that it does not separate the Executive and Legislative Power, as is the case for example in the United States.

The Legislative Branch is based on a two-chamber system: the House of Commons, where members are elected by universal suffrage; and the House of Lords, in which members are not elected by the citizens.

The government is headed by the prime minister who, as in other countries such as Spain and Italy, is elected by the representatives of the Legislative Power.

Ireland

Ireland combines aspects of the UK model with the American one. The system of political organization of the Gallic country is the republican parliamentary democracy. Unlike the UK, Ireland has a written Constitution.

The government in Ireland is made up of the president and two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The president and the House of Representatives are directly elected by the people.

The Senate is elected by universities and by four vocational panels: administrative; agricultural, cultural and educational; industrial and commercial; and labor.

References

1. Fernández, F. (nd). On representative democracy. www.upf.es. Available at: upf.es.
2. Haddox, A. (2016). The Athenian Representative Democracy. Undergraduate Journal of Political Science, Vol. 1, No.1, 125-140. Retrieved from: cpp.edu.
3. Representative democracy. (nd). On Wikipedia. Consulted on June 5, 2018, from en.wikipedia.org
4. Democracy. (nd). On Wikipedia. Consulted on June 5, 2018, from en.wikipedia.org
5. History of democracy. (nd). On Wikipedia. Consulted on June 5, 2018, from en.wikipedia.org
6. 13 Adventatges and disadventatges of representative democracy. (nd). vittana.org. Available at: vittana.org.