The 6 types of Democracy and their characteristics

Democracy is a type of governance within society that refers to a balance of forces between citizens and representatives who choose to empower them to legislate and enforce those policies that concern or seem to them priority.

Although the concept of democracy is one and unequivocal, there are different varieties and types of state organization, whose differences are marked especially due to the exceptionality of each society, such as religion, territorial character or the present ethnicity of different communities. Then we will see what are the different types of democracy.

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What is democracy?

The terminology democracy dates back to the beginning of the 5th century, in ancient Greece. More concretely, It is in Athens that this political system was born, although with very important limitations. "Demos" refers to "people" and "cracia" comes from the etymology "kratos", which refers to "power" or "government".

In general terms, democracy constitutes a series of fundamental requirements that make up a variety of civil rights that are distinguished from other political systems. Some of them are

suffrage (right to vote), freedom of expression and freedom of political action (being part of power).

The 6 types of democracy

Due to the centuries that have passed since its origin, democracy has been transforming and adapting to the increasingly heterogeneous times of modern societies.

In this article we will review the 6 main most common types of democracy of our times.

1. Direct democracy

It is the type of democracy most desired and still longed for in overpopulated countries since direct democracy it is usually implemented in spaces with few inhabitants, as this is a direct participation system, as its name indicates, without intermediaries or representatives. Normally the debates and decisions are instrumentalized through the assembly system.

2. Liberal

Liberal democracy is common within the Western world, whose system is defined by the election of rulers by voting (suffrage), those representatives where they are subject to a rule of law, laws and the Constitution that have emanated from the people same.

In this type of democracy, citizens enjoy rights and freedoms, both individual and collective, democratic pluralism, political, social and religious tolerance. Alternation in power is another requirement fundamental of this model. In addition, there is a control system for the rulers that monitors the quality of the mandate.

3. Christian Democrat

Christian Democracy it was widespread in some European countries in the 20th century, in countries like Germany, Ireland or Italy. It consists of governing the laws of public life with the commandments and values ​​of the Christian religion, including Catholics and Protestants.

In this sense, the Christian Democratic ideology tends to turn to the right, towards more conservative legislation and towards a liberalization of the economy.

4. Indirect or representative

Indirect democracy or also known as representative, is the most implemented today. Here citizens elect different political profiles (presidents, delegates, mayors, senators, deputies) to represent them in public life and in political decisions.

5. Partial

Partial democracy refers to political systems where the powers of the people are well limited in the sphere and political activities (decision-making power). They meet the basic requirements of any democracy such as elections, freedom of expression and plurality of parties, but fellow citizens do not have real access to state administrations.

On the other hand, this type of democracy it tends to be personalistic and the party in power has mechanisms to reinforce or increase its executive and legislative capacity over and above the parliament and the Constitution of the country in question.

6. Popular

It is perhaps the most controversial and complex type of democracy. It is said of the popular governments those who have broken their ties with imperialism, colonialism or they have achieved their independence through popular resistance (armed in some cases) to the invader.

These systems are socialist and progressive in nature, and the government party holds hegemony, nationalizes companies and opposes Globalization. They were devised by the former Soviet Union, and were implemented in the countries of its influence, called satellite states.

It is a case in which, indeed, democratic elections have taken place. But these have been preceded by events such as a coup, after which the dominant force seeks to legitimize its power through free elections.

In many cases they emerge with overwhelming popular support that, over time, is diminishing as the regime perpetuates itself in power for long periods, failing to fulfill its initial promise of returning power to the masses.