Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of elected individuals representing the people, as opposed to either
autocracy or
direct democracy.
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The representatives form more than what it used to be when it was an independent ruling body (for an election period) charged with the responsibility of acting in the people's interest, but
not as their proxy representatives; that is, not necessarily always according to their wishes, but with enough
authority to exercise swift and resolute initiative in the face of changing circumstances. It is often contrasted with
direct democracy, where representatives are absent or are limited in power as proxy representatives.
In many representative democracies (Canada, Australia, UK, etc), representatives are most commonly chosen in
elections by a
plurality of those who are both eligible to cast votes and actually do so. A plurality means that a winning candidate has to win more votes than any other candidate in the race, but does not necessarily require a majority of the votes cast. While existing representative democracies hold such elections to choose representatives, in theory other methods, such as
sortition (more closely aligned with direct democracy), could be used instead.
Also, representatives sometimes hold the power to select other representatives, presidents, or other officers of government (indirect representation).
A representative democracy that emphasizes individual
liberties is called a
liberal democracy. One that does not is an
illiberal democracy. There is no necessity that individual liberties are respected in a representative democracy.
Today, in liberal democracies, representatives are usually elected in
multi-party elections that are
free and fair.
The power of representatives in a liberal democracy is usually curtailed by a constitution (as in a constitutional republic or a constitutional monarchy) or other measures to balance representative power:
- An independent judiciary, which may have the power to declare legislative acts unconstitutional (e.g. constitutional court, supreme court)
- It may also provide for some deliberative democracy (e.g., Royal Commissions) or direct popular measures (e.g., initiative, referendum, recall elections). However, these are not always binding and usually require some legislative action - legal power usually remains firmly with representatives[where?][/suP].
- In some cases, a bicameral legislature may have an "upper house" that is not directly elected, such as the Canadian Senate, which was in turn modeled on the British House of Lords.
The term
republic may have many different meanings. Today, it often simply means a state with an elected or otherwise non-
monarchical head of state
