We chose to institute a direct democracy instead of a representative democracy. A direct democracy occurs when all of the citizens propose and vote on laws. This is modeled after the Assembly in ancient Athens. In contrast, a representative democracy happens when the people elect a representative who proposes laws for them and a group of government officials vote to pass or reject the law, which is similar to the current government of the United States of America. One of the biggest issues with a representative democracy is that it’s very easy to influence or bribe the officials. As a result, the bribers nearly always have the officials on their side. These bribes are in the form of campaign donations. An example of this “bribery” would be …show more content…
This problem does not appear a direct democracy. In a representative democracy, it is in the hands of the representative to be fair and impartial. Truthfully, the odds are that the representative won’t remain unbiased and will rule from his own personal opinion or what benefits his constituency. Since there are only so many representatives, all one side needs is the majority to win. However, in a direct democracy it is much harder to tip the vote in favor of one side. This is because there are so many people who each have a voice, it would be rare for thousands of people to have an unfair bias. The result of this is a more impartial outcome than if there was a representative democracy. This insures more viewpoints represented in the long …show more content…
Not all of the positions for government offices are filled through an election; many are filled simply by an important government official deciding who gets the job. This correlates with the issue mentioned previously about bias. In the United States of America, the seats for the Supreme Court are filled by the President rather than an election. Therefore, if the President is very conservative, he will appoint judges to the Supreme Court who have rulings which contain more conservative than liberal ideas. In addition, many other governmental posts are filled with people who are liked by those in higher positions. This proves one of the biggest arguments against a representative government. Even though people choose the representatives, there are so many positions that are filled without an election, the people don’t actually have a voice in the selection process. But the biggest benefit of a direct democracy is that the people actually get a say instead of appointing a representative and hoping that the representatives won’t end up being close minded to the needs of all the people. Also, because the people will actually get a say, then there won’t always be complaints that someone didn’t get a voice. Of course there will still be people who are unhappy, but this is to be expected in a democratic system. A direct democracy dismantles almost all of the other
Direct democracy is a government in which the people directly elect their officials, and vote on the laws which govern them. When a nation has a representative democracy, the people’s officials are elected to act in their stead (Text Pg. 24). The politicians are empowered by the people to govern and pass laws. A constitutional democracy is one in that the politicians are representatives of the people (Text Pg. 21). The politicians acknowledge that there are limitations on their power, and that the people are sovereign.
The Webster definition for democracy is a system of rule by laws, not by individuals. In a democracy, the rule of law protects the rights of citizens, maintain orders and limits the power of the government. All citizens are equal under the law. No one may be discriminated against based on age, beliefs, race, religion, ethic group or gender. In the United States of America, our country is known for its democracy. The people hold the power to rule and make all the decisions both direct and representative. An example of direct democracy is when we can vote on certain concerns and vote on who we would like to represent for us. A direct democracy is when the people can decide on policy initiatives. Representative democracy is when we have a representative
Direct democracy means the capacity that people have to vote directly in elections, decision-making and policy-making processes. There are three major forms of direct democracy; initiative, referendum, and recall. The Initiative democracy is known as a process where a public vote can be introduced by a minimum number of registered voters in the ballot while the referendum take place when the legislature present to the voters a constitutional amendment or law proposal before its final approval (plebiscite). On the other hand, recall is a device by which the voters can end or remove an elected official before the conclusion of his/her term.
John Madison, author of the Federalist essay number ten, warned the nation that whenever people with similar interest group together they risk creating a faction. Whenever a faction is created the minority have a difficult time having their opinions heard. They are discriminated against and they will have to face hardships. This is interesting because although we are a very diverse nation we risk having factions. Because everyone does not vote, it seems that the upper middle class gets most of the benefits. If the minority votes someone into office that is concerned with the living conditions of inner city residents, then people will have a better chance of seeing change. We have an indirect democracy. An indirect democracy is where the people elect elites into government and the elite decide what is best for the general public. A direct democracy is where the people elect a figurehead into government. They elected official does whatever the general public asks of it. We can’t have a direct democracy in America because everyone isn’t knowledgeable about politics. If we did, the nation will be turned into
A direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of government wherein the citizens have a direct say.
By definition, a representative democracy is a form of government that is chosen to represent a large group of people. After conducting elections, the elected are to proceed with affirmative government actions by fulfilling society’s needs. A representative democracy emphasizes active participation and political interest in order to choose the presumably best fitting elected representative to form decisions on behalf of the greater masses. If citizens do not raise questions or concerns that impact
A Direct Democracy is where the people rule the country themselves. Getting all together and hashing out how their country will be ran. A Representative Democracy is where the people vote on someone to make their decisions for them. Obviously a direct democracy is favorable but when you grow to size of thousands than millions of people it becomes an unrealistic expectation to get everyone to agree to do it one way or another. A representative democracy or a republic is a much more feasible option for highly populated areas. Republics are countries that have no monarch and are governed by the people. (Magleby, D)
An accurate definition of a ‘pure’ democracy is a form of government where the people vote on policy matters directly - through town hall meetings or by ballot referendums. The Framers of the Constitution were fearful of a ‘pure’ democracy as the will of the people does not always align with what is in the best interest of the public. The United States Constitution, therefore, refers to a “republican form of government”, where decisions are made by elected leaders. This form of representative democracy allows the public to vote in men and women with similar values to their own, consequently, they can trust that the elected leader will make similar decisions to push the country in the direction the public favor.
Direct democracy is when the citizens discuss and gather to create a law. Direct democracy is not highly practiced in the United States of America because it requires all the citizens to participate. Representative democracy is when the citizens elect representatives as their voice. Representative democracy is highly used today in the United States to establish the constitution, labor laws, branches of government, and political parties. Thus this paper will feature the American national government national policy, branch government, and constitution. A critical analyzation of the United States Constitution uncovering the strength and weakness of the system. In particular, the controversial issue of the abortion law tremendous effect on the United States Constitution. Additionally, the labor laws established in the United States has a higher disadvantage for employers and employees. The Branch of Government protects the people as well as empowers the president to be an effective leader. As much the impact of the political parties’ success to the checks and balances of the
In today's society people elect representatives because those representatives defend people ideas and have solutions to people needs. The fact of been able to elect any representative make our society a democracy because we are free to elect who we want and everyone has the opportunity to express their opinion by voting for a representative. Also this voting process is do every certain time and representatives can be reelected a certain amount of time, giving the opportunity to everyone to be a representative. Furthermore, people have also options to change a representative during his/her tern if the representative does not show competence and responsibility at his/her job.
The purpose of democracy is to allow the majority to express their opinion and have their needs met. Democratic systems of government are separated into direct democracy and representative democracy. Direct democracy is advantageous for the people because each political decision is made by the people. As for representative democracy, the difference lies within the representative's decisions. In a representative democracy, the majority is represented through smaller groups of individuals elected by the people.
American citizens can be properly represented in government by choosing representatives that they believe fit their ideals the best. It does not let majority groups get greater representation than minority groups in government. The republican form of government has advantages in the way that if voters do not know the situations, it will not crumble because the elected representatives will make the decisions that they think will work the best for people they
I think citizens would like representative democracy. One reason is because they can have somewhat of a say in what the laws are. This is good because there cannot be any outrageous or terrible laws. A second reason is that citizens can
As stated by the above quote, the people who are in office are being chosen by voters, but the people who are voting aren’t an accurate representation of the American population. Most
Some of the major features in a direct democracy are that the people get to directly elect things such as the president or for laws to be passed or not. The big advantages of a direct democracy are that voting takes much less time as it is just a vote among all the citizens, people see the the changes they voted for take effect faster, and people feel like their vote is valued and powerful. The downsides to a direct democracy are that sometimes the popular vote isn't always the right vote and people realize that after it's too late to change what they did. Around the time of the American Revolution the majority of people were considered, “too uneducated to govern themselves” (Schmidt, et al, 5). When our constitution was being written many of the founding fathers did not believe that the common people were ready to govern themselves, so they set up a representative democracy instead of a direct democracy. James Madison thought that if we did implement a direct democracy it would, “deteriorate into mob rule” (Schmidt,et al, 5).