Representative Democracy
Definition
A type of democracy where citizens elect representatives who make decisions about laws for all people.
Analogy
Representative democracy is like choosing your school's student council. You pick classmates you trust to represent your interests and make decisions on behalf of the entire class.
Related terms
Constituency: The residents in the area from which an official is elected.
Bicameral Legislature: A lawmaking body made up of two chambers or parts, such as the House and Senate in U.S. Congress.
Plurality System (First-Past-The-Post): An electoral system in which each voter is allowed to vote for only one candidate, and the candidate who polls more votes than any other candidate is elected.
"Representative Democracy" appears in:
Subjects (2)
Study guides (1)
Practice Questions (9)
What event marked the start of representative democracy in North America?
What feature distinguishes a direct democracy from a representative democracy?
What is the major difference between direct democracy and representative democracy?
Which characteristic is distinctive of a representative democracy?
Which outcome can result from a lack of citizen participation in a representative democracy?
In a representative democracy, what is the likely effect of citizens not having access to unbiased information?
Which of these key concepts are more closely linked with direct democracy than representative democracy?
What might have been a significant result in the United States' political landscape if the country had initially adopted a direct democracy instead of a representative democracy?
Had the U.S embraced participatory democracy at its founding rather than representative democracy, what possible scenario may have unfolded?
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