Representative democracy is a variety of democracy founded on the principle of elected people representing a group of people, as opposed to direct democracy. For example, three countries which use representative democracy are the United States Of America (a presidential republic), the United Kingdom (a constitutional monarchy) and Poland (a parliamentary republic).
It is an element of both the parliamentary system and presidential system of government and is typically used in a lower chamber such as the House of Commons (UK) or Bundestag (Germany), and is generally curtailed by constitutional constraints such as an upper chamber. It has been described by some political theorists as Polyarchy.
Read more about Representative Democracy: Powers of Representatives, Representative Democracy and Republicanism, History, Criticisms
Famous quotes containing the word democracy:
“In a democracy—even if it is a so-called democracy like our white-élitist one—the greatest veneration one can show the rule of law is to keep a watch on it, and to reserve the right to judge unjust laws and the subversion of the function of the law by the power of the state. That vigilance is the most important proof of respect for the law.”
—Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)