Stay in the loop. According to the Democracy Index , put out by the publisher of The Economist magazine, there are countries in the world that are either full democracies, flawed democracies, or some form of hybrid regime.
Essentially all of these democracies are representative democracies. The remainder of the surveyed countries are considered authoritarian regimes, such as North Korea, the Middle East states or other countries run by an autocrat. But not all representative democracies are the same. Some are parliamentary constitutional monarchies, such as the United Kingdom or the Netherlands, while others are representative republics like Germany or the United States.
Even countries that are de facto dictatorships maintain mechanisms of representative democracy. Russia comes to mind. And a representative democracy can either be liberal — where laws protect not only our human rights and other values, but also limit the power of our representatives — or illiberal, in which elected representatives, once in power, can more or less rule as they please. We have jobs to go to, kids to care for, the latest Apple products to salivate over.
Representatives can also aggregate the various interests of their constituents to shape laws and policy in a way that gives the greatest benefit to the most people. Help us fight for your rights! Donate For representative democracy to work properly, it is complemented by participatory democracy. This means that citizens, through civil society groups and other non-governmental organizations NGOs , are still able to communicate with and influence their government between elections. NGOs fulfill a number of important functions, including informing people about matters of public interest, providing them with channels through which they can speak to their political representatives between elections, and holding the government to account when it breaks the law.
The freedom of NGOs to carry out these functions and the freedom of people to associate with NGOs are vital components of liberal representative democracy. That said, representative democracy is not without its drawbacks. It necessarily concentrates power in the hands of a few people, thereby giving them ultimate control over the form and substance of our laws. Could legislation be crafted in a way that gives special benefits to representatives, their family or friends?
Elected representatives are also difficult to reign in between elections, meaning they could pass laws that make us unhappy, or unfairly favor themselves or others, and we could have to wait years to hold them to account for it.
Most of us would agree that democracy, while not perfect, is the fairest system of government. It tends to do the best job of protecting the values most of us hold, like equality, human rights, and equal application of the law.
And representative democracy is probably the best form of democracy to achieve this. Citizens still maintain ultimate control over their government through elections, during which they can choose the people and parties that represent them.
Representative democracy gives people the advantages of democracy — having a say in the way they are governed, and choosing the people who govern them — without the onus of needing to study each law or policy initiative themselves. Most of us have neither the time nor the inclination to do this.
This means we maintain control over the direction of our country and what laws we live under. A few puppies may have to suffer through some uncomfortable photoshoots, but the drawbacks of representative democracy are far fewer than those of other systems of government.
And it does the best job of safeguarding our rights and values so that we are able to build and enjoy safe and free societies. A system of government in which citizens elect representatives who propose and vote on legislation or policy initiatives. But it delegates the responsibility of being expert on law and policy so citizens can go about their daily lives or choose not to pay much attention to the details.
Citizens elect their representatives, choosing people they feel will promote their interests. Representatives must therefore be aware of the social issues of the day. To stay informed of current events, they confer with members of the public and a wide variety of interest groups, for example during working visits. They also answer questions by email and letter. Citizens can also influence local or national politics by taking action themselves, for example by sending emails to members of parliament or town councils.
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