Representative democracy

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Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy or electoral democracy, is a type of democracy where elected delegates represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. [1] Nearly all modern Western-style democracies function as some type of representative democracy: for example, the United Kingdom (a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy), Germany (a federal parliamentary republic), France (a unitary semi-presidential republic), and the United States (a federal presidential republic). [2] Unlike liberal democracy, a representative democracy may have de facto multiparty and free and fair elections, but may not have a fully developed rule of law and additional individual and minority rights beyond the electoral sphere. [3]

Contents

Representative democracy places power in the hands of representatives who are elected by the people. Political parties often become central to this form of democracy if electoral systems require or encourage voters to vote for political parties or for candidates associated with political parties (as opposed to voting for individual representatives). [4] Some political theorists (including Robert Dahl, Gregory Houston, and Ian Liebenberg) have described representative democracy as polyarchy. [5] [6]

Representative democracy can be organized in different ways including both parliamentary and presidential systems of government. Elected representatives typically form a legislature (such as a parliament or congress), which may be composed of a single chamber (unicameral), two chambers (bicameral), or more than two chambers (multicameral). Where two or more chambers exist, their members are often elected in different ways.

Powers of representatives

Representatives are elected by the public, as in national elections for the national legislature. [2] Elected representatives may hold the power to select other representatives, presidents, or other officers of the government or of the legislature, as the prime minister in the latter case.

The power of representatives is usually curtailed by a constitution (as in a constitutional democracy or a constitutional monarchy) or other measures to balance representative power: [7]

Some political theorists, such as Edmund Burke, believe that part of the duty of a representative is not simply to follow the wishes of the electorate but also to use their own judgment in the exercise of their powers, even if their views are not reflective of those of a majority of voters. [8] A representative who chooses to execute the wishes of their constituents acts as a delegate. If the representative chooses to use their best judgment and knowledge in making decisions, even when the constituents do not fully agree with the decision, then the representative acts as a trustee.

History

The Roman Republic was the first known state in the Western world to have a representative government, despite taking the form of a direct government in the Roman assemblies. The Roman model of governance would inspire many political thinkers over the centuries, [9] and today's modern representative democracies imitate more the Roman than the Greek model, because it was a state in which supreme power was held by the people and their elected representatives, and which had an elected or nominated leader. [10] Representative democracy is a form of democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives; as opposed to direct democracy, a form of democracy in which people vote on policy initiatives directly. [11] A European medieval tradition of selecting representatives from the various estates (classes, but not as we know them today) to advise/control monarchs led to relatively wide familiarity with representative systems inspired by Roman systems.

In Britain, Simon de Montfort is remembered as one of the fathers of representative government for holding two famous parliaments. [12] [13] The first, in 1258, stripped the king of unlimited authority and the second, in 1265, included ordinary citizens from the towns. [14] Later, in the 17th century, the Parliament of England implemented some of the ideas and systems of liberal democracy, culminating in the Glorious Revolution and passage of the Bill of Rights 1689. [15] [16] Widening of the voting franchise took place through a series of Reform Acts in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The American Revolution led to the creation of a new Constitution of the United States in 1787, with a national legislature based partly on direct elections of representatives every two years, and thus responsible to the electorate for continuance in office. Senators were not directly elected by the people until the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. Women, men who owned no property, and Black people, and others not originally given voting rights, in most states eventually gained the vote through changes in state and federal law in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. Until it was repealed by the Fourteenth Amendment following the Civil War, the Three-Fifths Compromise gave a disproportionate representation of slave states in the House of Representatives relative to the voters in free states. [17] [18]

In 1789, Revolutionary France adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and, although short-lived, the National Convention was elected by all males in 1792. [19] Universal male suffrage was re-established in France in the wake of the French Revolution of 1848. [20]

Representative democracy came into general favour particularly in post-industrial revolution nation states where large numbers of citizens evinced interest in politics, but where technology and population figures remained unsuited to direct democracy.[ citation needed ] Many historians credit the Reform Act 1832 with launching modern representative democracy in the United Kingdom. [21] [22]

The U.S. House of Representatives, one example of representative democracy USHouseStructure2012-2022 SeatsByState.png
The U.S. House of Representatives, one example of representative democracy

Globally, a majority of governments in the world are representative democracies, including constitutional monarchies and republics with strong representative branches. [23]

Research on representation per se

Separate but related, and very large, bodies of research in political philosophy and social science investigate how and how well elected representatives, such as legislators, represent the interests or preferences of one or another constituency. The empirical research shows that representative systems tend to be biased towards the representation of more affluent classes to the detriment of the population at large. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31]

Criticisms

In his book Political Parties , written in 1911, Robert Michels argues that most representative systems deteriorate towards an oligarchy or particracy. This is known as the iron law of oligarchy. [32] Representative democracies which are stable have been analysed by Adolf Gasser and compared to the unstable representative democracies in his book Gemeindefreiheit als Rettung Europas which was published in 1943 and a second edition in 1947. [33] Adolf Gasser stated the following requirements for a representative democracy in order to remain stable, unaffected by the iron law of oligarchy:

A drawback to this type of government is that elected officials are not required to fulfill promises made before their election and are able to promote their own self-interests once elected, providing an incohesive system of governance. [34] Legislators are also under scrutiny as the system of majority-won legislators voting for issues for the large group of people fosters inequality among the marginalized. [35]

Proponents of direct democracy criticize representative democracy due to its inherent structure. As the fundamental basis of representative democracy is non inclusive system, in which representatives turn into an elite class that works behind closed doors, as well as the criticizing the elector system as being driven by a capitalistic and authoritarian system. [36] [37]

The V-Dem Institute classifies electoral democracies as the bare minimum of democracies, describing them as being governments that are "de-facto accountable to citizens through periodic elections", but are not liberal democracies and lack further entrenched individual and minority rights beyond the electoral sphere. Basic representative democracies may not possess a fully developed rule of law, legislative and judicial oversight of the executive branch, protections against the "tyranny of the majority", and only minimal fulfillment of Robert Dahl's institutional prerequisites for democracy. [3]

Proposed solutions

The system of stochocracy has been proposed as an improved system compared to the system of representative democracy, where representatives are elected. Stochocracy aims to at least reduce this degradation by having all representatives appointed by lottery instead of by voting. Therefore, this system is also called lottocracy. The system was proposed by the writer Roger de Sizif in 1998 in his book La Stochocratie. Choosing officeholders by lot was also the standard practice in ancient Athenian democracy [38] and in ancient India. The rationale behind this practice was to avoid lobbying and electioneering by economic oligarchs.

The system of deliberative democracy is a mix between a majority-ruled system and a consensus-based system. It allows for representative democracies or direct democracies to coexist with its system of governance, providing an initial advantage. [39]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Victorian Electronic Democracy, Final Report – Glossary". 28 July 2005. Archived from the original on 13 December 2007. Retrieved 14 December 2007.
  2. 1 2 Loeper, Antoine (2016). "Cross-border externalities and cooperation among representative democracies". European Economic Review. 91: 180–208. doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2016.10.003. hdl: 10016/25180 .
  3. 1 2 Lührmann, Anna; Tannenberg, Marcus; Lindberg, Staffan I. (19 March 2018). "Regimes of the World (RoW): Opening New Avenues for the Comparative Study of Political Regimes". Politics and Governance. 6 (1): 60–77. doi: 10.17645/pag.v6i1.1214 . ISSN   2183-2463. Archived from the original on 21 March 2025. Retrieved 16 May 2025.
  4. ↑ De Vos et al (2014) South African Constitutional Law – In Context: Oxford University Press.
  5. ↑ Houston, G F (2001) Public Participation in Democratic Governance in South Africa, Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council HSRC Press
  6. ↑ Dahl, R A (2005) "Is international democracy possible? A critical view", in Sergio Fabbrini (editor): Democracy and Federalism in the European Union and the United States: Exploring post-national governance: 195 to 204 (Chapter 13), Abingdon on the Thames: Routledge.
  7. ↑ "CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY". www.civiced.org. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  8. ↑ The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. Volume I. London: Henry G. Bohn. 1854. pp. 446–8. Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a Representative, to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure; no, nor from the Law and the Constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
  9. ↑ Livy; De Sélincourt, A.; Ogilvie, R. M.; Oakley, S. P. (2002). The early history of Rome: books I-V of The history of Rome from its foundations. Penguin Classics. p. 34. ISBN   0-14-044809-8.
  10. ↑ Watson, 2005, p. 271
  11. ↑ Budge, Ian (2001). "Direct democracy". In Clarke, Paul A.B.; Foweraker, Joe (eds.). Encyclopedia of Political Thought. Taylor & Francis. ISBN   978-0-415-19396-2.
  12. ↑ Jobson, Adrian (2012). The First English Revolution: Simon de Montfort, Henry III and the Barons' War. Bloomsbury. pp. 173–4. ISBN   978-1-84725-226-5.
  13. ↑ "Simon de Montfort: The turning point for democracy that gets overlooked". BBC. 19 January 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2015; "The January Parliament and how it defined Britain" . The Telegraph. 20 January 2015. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  14. ↑ Norgate, Kate (1894). "Montfort, Simon of (1208?-1265)"  . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  15. ↑ Kopstein, Jeffrey; Lichbach, Mark; Hanson, Stephen E., eds. (2014). Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order (4, revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 37–9. ISBN   978-1139991384. Britain pioneered the system of liberal democracy that has now spread in one form or another to most of the world's countries
  16. ↑ "Constitutionalism: America & Beyond". Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 24 October 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2014. The earliest, and perhaps greatest, victory for liberalism was achieved in England. The rising commercial class that had supported the Tudor monarchy in the 16th century led the revolutionary battle in the 17th and succeeded in establishing the supremacy of Parliament and, eventually, of the House of Commons. What emerged as the distinctive feature of modern constitutionalism was not the insistence on the idea that the king is subject to the law (although this concept is an essential attribute of all constitutionalism). This notion was already well established in the Middle Ages. What was distinctive was the establishment of effective means of political control whereby the rule of law might be enforced. Modern constitutionalism was born with the political requirement that representative government depended upon the consent of citizen subjects... However, as can be seen through provisions in the 1689 Bill of Rights, the English Revolution was fought not just to protect the rights of property (in the narrow sense) but to establish those liberties which liberals believed essential to human dignity and moral worth. The "rights of man" enumerated in the English Bill of Rights gradually were proclaimed beyond the boundaries of England, notably in the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 and in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789.
  17. ↑ "We Hold These Truths to be Self-evident;" An Interdisciplinary Analysis of the Roots of Racism & slavery in America Kenneth N. Addison; Introduction P. xxii
  18. ↑ "Expansion of Rights and Liberties". National Archives. 30 October 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  19. ↑ "The French Revolution II". Mars.wnec.edu. Archived from the original on 27 August 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
  20. ↑ French National Assembly. "1848 " Désormais le bulletin de vote doit remplacer le fusil "" (in French). Retrieved 26 September 2009.
  21. ↑ A. Ricardo López; Barbara Weinstein (2012). The Making of the Middle Class: Toward a Transnational History. Duke UP. p. 58. ISBN   978-0822351290.
  22. ↑ Eric J. Evans, The Forging of the Modern State: Early Industrial Britain, 1783–1870 (2nd ed. 1996) p. 229
  23. ↑ Roser, Max (15 March 2013). "Democracy". Our World in Data.
  24. ↑ Jacobs, Lawrence R.; Page, Benjamin I. (February 2005). "Who Influences U.S. Foreign Policy?". American Political Science Review. 99 (1): 107–123. doi:10.1017/S000305540505152X. S2CID   154481971.
  25. ↑ Bernauer, Julian; Giger, Nathalie; Rosset, Jan (January 2015). "Mind the gap: Do proportional electoral systems foster a more equal representation of women and men, poor and rich?". International Political Science Review. 36 (1): 78–98. doi:10.1177/0192512113498830. S2CID   145633250.
  26. ↑ Gilens, Martin; Page, Benjamin I. (September 2014). "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens". Perspectives on Politics. 12 (3): 564–581. doi: 10.1017/S1537592714001595 .
  27. ↑ Carnes, Nicholas (2013). White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making. University of Chicago Press. ISBN   978-0-226-08728-3.[ page needed ]
  28. ↑ Carnes, Nicholas; Lupu, Noam (January 2015). "Rethinking the Comparative Perspective on Class and Representation: Evidence from Latin America". American Journal of Political Science. 59 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1111/ajps.12112.
  29. ↑ Giger, Nathalie; Rosset, Jan; Bernauer, Julian (April 2012). "The Poor Political Representation of the Poor in a Comparative Perspective". Representation. 48 (1): 47–61. doi:10.1080/00344893.2012.653238. S2CID   154081733.
  30. ↑ Peters, Yvette; Ensink, Sander J. (4 May 2015). "Differential Responsiveness in Europe: The Effects of Preference Difference and Electoral Participation". West European Politics. 38 (3): 577–600. doi: 10.1080/01402382.2014.973260 . S2CID   153452076.
  31. ↑ Schakel, Wouter; Burgoon, Brian; Hakhverdian, Armen (March 2020). "Real but Unequal Representation in Welfare State Reform". Politics & Society. 48 (1): 131–163. doi: 10.1177/0032329219897984 . hdl: 1887/138869 . S2CID   214235967.
  32. ↑ Zur Soziologie des Parteiwesens in der modernen Demokratie. Untersuchungen über die oligarchischen Tendenzen des Gruppenlebens (1911, 1925; 1970). Translated as Sociologia del partito politico nella democrazia moderna : studi sulle tendenze oligarchiche degli aggregati politici, from the German original by Dr. Alfredo Polledro, revised and expanded (1912). Translated, from the Italian, by Eden and Cedar Paul as Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy'" (Hearst's International Library Co., 1915; Free Press, 1949; Dover Publications, 1959); republished with an introduction by Seymour Martin Lipset (Crowell-Collier, 1962; Transaction Publishers, 1999, ISBN   0-7658-0469-7); translated in French by S. Jankélévitch, Les partis politiques. Essai sur les tendances oligarchiques des démocraties, Brussels, Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 2009 ( ISBN   978-2-8004-1443-0).
  33. ↑ Gemeindefreiheit als Rettung Europas. Grundlinien einer ethischen Geschichtsauffassung. Verlag Bücherfreunde, Basel 1947. In 1983 republished under: "Gemeindefreiheit – kommunale Selbstverwaltung" (Adolf Gasser/Franz-Ludwig Knemeyer), in de reeks "Studien zur Soziologie", Nymphenburger, München, 1983.
  34. ↑ Sørensen, Eva (25 April 2016). "Enhancing policy innovation by redesigning representative democracy". Policy & Politics. 44 (2): 155–170. doi:10.1332/030557315X14399997475941. S2CID   156556922. ProQuest   1948833814.
  35. ↑ Thaa, Winfried (3 May 2016). "Issues and images – new sources of inequality in current representative democracy". Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. 19 (3): 357–375. doi:10.1080/13698230.2016.1144859. S2CID   147669709.
  36. ↑ Razsa, Maple; Kurnik, Andrej (May 2012). "The Occupy Movement in Žižek's hometown: Direct democracy and a politics of becoming: The Occupy Movement in Žižek's hometown". American Ethnologist. 39 (2): 238–258. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01361.x.
  37. ↑ Heckert, Jamie (2010). "Anarchist roots & routes" (PDF). European Journal of Ecopsychology. 1: 19–36.
  38. ↑ "1,5". Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece. Josiah Ober, Robert Wallace, Paul Cartledge, Cynthia Farrar (1st ed.). 15 October 2008. pp. 17, 105. ISBN   978-0520258099.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  39. ↑ Bohman, James (1997). Deliberative Democracy (PDF). MIT Press.
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