Representative democracy: what it is, and general characteristics

The idea of ​​democracy is a fairly old concept, apparently arising in the polis of Athens in the 5th century BC. c. At that time, political decisions were taken directly, making all the men with the right to vote decide what was the best measure to take.

The idea of ​​democracy reappeared in modern times, but its classical version was inapplicable. It was easy to do it in a city like Athens, but not in a country made up of millions of people like the United States.

Currently, the vast majority of developed countries have governmental systems of representative democracy in whichs, although political power is held by the people, citizens choose their candidates to make it effective. Let's take a deeper look below.

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What is representative democracy?

Representative or indirect democracy is a form of government in which voting citizens exercise their power by choosing representatives, whether they are specific people or political parties. These representatives are elected from time to time through free elections in which, through international suffrage, men and women choose those people who they consider best represent them ideologically or whose proposals are to them beneficial.

In every country that calls itself democratic, the idea that political power resides in the people is accepted. The citizens of a state have the right to decide the destiny of their country, making decisions about the laws and measures that will be applied. However, you cannot ask for the opinion of the public for absolutely everything, nor expect them to participate. The ideal for a country to be as democratic as possible would be to ask citizens in the form of a referendums and plebiscites what do you want done with each new law that is proposed, but in practice this is impossible.

In this sense, representative democracies arise because of the difficulties involved in asking your citizens about all political decisions every time they are proposed. Since it is not possible to mobilize almost every week all the millions of citizens who live in a country to pronounce about the government of the country, these citizens exercise their political power through the figure of the representativeness. That is to say, the people, who are the sovereign of political power, exercise it but in an indirect and representative way.

This election of the representatives of the people is made every 4 or 5 years, which is the time that legislatures usually last in most countries. Once this time has elapsed, elections are held again, where citizens will once again decide who they want to represent them and with which politicians they are most ideologically identified. Thus, if the last government has not been to your liking, you can change it by voting, hoping that the new one will apply measures that are more beneficial to you. This is why representative democracies are the cornerstone of liberal countries.

Characteristics of this form of government

As we have mentioned, the main characteristic of this system of government is representativeness. In Ancient Greece, direct democracy was a possible system since the citizens who had the right to vote, all of them free men and natives of their polis simply had to get together and vote, as was the case with Athens. As there were rather few people, it was easy to meet with some frequency and decide government decisions based on a “yes” or a “no”.

This system is not applicable to our modern societies, since the political structure is much larger, not being city-states but countries. that can perfectly be the size of continents (United States, Russia, Brazil, Australia...) and, furthermore, with the right to vote for millions of people. Political power continues to reside in the citizenry but exercising it directly is impracticable.

The representative is chosen among a series of candidates and is a decision of the majorities. This representativeness is reflected especially at the executive level through the presidency, the governorships and mayoralties, and also at the legislative level with congresses, chambers and assemblies nationals.

Another characteristic of representative democracy is the existence of political parties, which are made up of citizens who represent the interests and ideologies of different sectors of the population. These parties are legal organizations that present one or several candidates, their political proposals and laws, so that the people choose them if they agree with what they say.

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Representative democracies and their different versions

representative democracies tend to be presented in the form of republics, although not necessarily. Some countries that are constitutional monarchies, such as Spain and the United Kingdom, have representative democratic systems of government.

In these monarchies, the head of state is the king, and he is not chosen democratically, but the government or executive power is, who falls to the figure of the president or prime minister. It is the executive power that exercises the political power that emanates from the people, no matter how monarchy or republic the state may be.

Any country that calls itself democratic it must have its governmental powers divided, balanced against each other, and checking each other. These powers are three: the executive, the legislative and the judicial. The three governmental powers must be molded in the image and likeness of what the people want, the which is manifested, as we have said, through the elections and the election of their representatives politicians.

in the big states there may be a more federal or a more centralist land administration system, and representative democracies fit both well. A federal country is that sovereign state whose territorial organization is made up of smaller political entities and which hold, albeit in a reduced form, the three classic powers. On the other hand, in centralist countries no degree of independence is granted to their regions, with political decisions being in the hands of the government bodies located in the capital.

Some representative democracies with a high degree of federalism can be found in countries like Argentina, Mexico, Germany and the United States, in which their federalized states, although they are not independent states, have a high self-government. Halfway between federalism and centralism we would find countries like the United Kingdom and Spain, whose divisions are the constituent kingdoms and autonomous communities, entities that can decide on aspects such as education, language, health... Last of strongly centralized countries we have Chile, Brazil and France.

How is it different from participatory democracy?

representative or indirect democracy It differs from participatory or direct democracy due to its participation mechanisms.. While in the representative one the people, who hold political power, choose their representatives through elections, in the participatory, it is the people themselves who directly make those political decisions, just as the citizens of Athens did classical.

At present, referendums and plebiscites are used in which they directly ask what the people want. Thanks to this, participatory democracy has an advantage over representative democracy and that is that decision-making Decisions are made according to what the people think at all times, which makes it really more democratic. Since it constantly asks itself what the citizens want, the country works in the most similar way to how the citizens want it.

The problem is that this type of democratic system is its inapplicability. Throughout history, referendums have been held in which they have asked what the people wanted directly, as has been the case with the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union in 2015 or the independence of Catalonia in 2017. These referendums were held because the decision to be made was too transcendental to be made only by the representatives of the people.

However, if referendums were held for absolutely the entire state government it would be very slow or even impossible to exercise it. At the minimum that the result of a plebiscite was close to 50%-50% and it was not clear what decision should be made, the government would be paralyzed. The referendum would have to be held again, hoping that the percentages would change, but that would also be unlikely. since the supporters of each option, seeing how close they would be to winning, would become more sure of their decision. This would make decision making last for long.

This is where representative democracy shows its advantage. The fact of electing representatives who are going to govern for 4 or more years makes it possible to avoid the uncertainties typical of direct democratic regimes. The government will make decisions according to its criteria and depending on how the opposition allows it. Naturally, his way of governing will not be shared by many citizens, but they will have to abide by and accept his political decisions. This is how the democratic game works, some win and others lose and those who have lost have the option of trying again at the end of the legislature.

Bibliographic references

• married, y (1994): Democracies in Pastor, M. (ed): Fundamentals of Political Science. Madrid. McGraw Hill.