Representative democracy: what it is, and general characteristics.

A summary of the characteristics of representative democracy and how it is applied.

The idea of democracy is a fairly ancient concept, apparently arising in the polis of Athens in the 5th century B.C. At that time political decisions were made directly, with all men entitled to vote deciding what was the best course of action.

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

Today, the vast majority of developed countries have representative democratic governmental governmental systems of representative democracy in which thes, although political power is held by the people, the citizens choose their candidates to make it effective. Let's look at it in more depth below.

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What is representative democracy?

Representative or indirect democracy is a form of government in which citizens with the right to vote exercise their power by choosing representatives, either individuals or political parties.either individuals or political parties. These representatives are elected from time to time by means of free elections in which, by means of international suffrage, men and women choose those persons whom they consider to best represent them ideologically or whose proposals are beneficial to them.

In any 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 to be applied. However, the citizens cannot be asked for their opinion on absolutely everything, nor can they be expected to participate themselves. The ideal for a country to be as democratic as possible would be to ask the citizens in the form of referendums and plebiscites what they want to be 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 their 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 living in a country to pronounce themselves on the government of the country, these citizens exercise their political power through the figure of representativeness. That is to say, the people, who are the sovereigns 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 the legislatures usually last in most countries. Once this time has elapsed, elections are held again, where the citizens will decide once more who they want to represent them and with which politicians they identify themselves ideologically. Thus, if the last government has not been to their liking, they will be able to change it by means of suffrage, hoping that the new one will apply measures that are more beneficial to them. 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 meet and vote, as was the case in Athens. Since they were rather few people it was easy to meet with some frequency and decide governmental decisions on the basis of a "yes" or "no" vote.

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

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

Another of the characteristics of representative democracy is the existence of political parties, which are made up of the following 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 can choose them if they agree with what they say.

Representative democracies and their different versions

Representative democracies tend to be presented in the form of republics, although they do 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 democratically elected, but the government or the executive power is, which is vested in the figure of the president or the prime minister. It is the executive power that exercises the political power emanating from the people, no matter how monarchical or republican the state may be.

Any country that calls itself democratic must have its governmental powers divided, balanced between them and mutually controlled.. These powers are three: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The three governmental powers must be molded in the image and likeness of what the people desire, which is manifested, as we have said, by means of elections and the election of their political representatives.

In the large states there can be either a more federal or a more centralist system of territorial administration, and representative democracies are well suited to both.. A federal country is a sovereign state whose territorial organization is composed of smaller political entities that hold, albeit in a reduced form, the three classic powers. In contrast, centralist countries do not grant any degree of independence 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 such as Argentina, Mexico, Germany and the United States, in which their federalized states, although not independent states, have a high degree of self-government. Halfway between federalism and centralism we would find countries such as the United Kingdom and Spain, whose divisions are the constituent kingdoms and the autonomous communities, entities that can decide on aspects such as education, language, health... Lastly, we have Chile, Brazil and France, which are strongly centralized countries.

How does it differ from participatory democracy?

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

Nowadays, referendums and plebiscites are used in which the people are asked directly what they want. Thanks to this, participatory democracy has an advantage over representative democracy in that decisions are made according to the opinions of the people at any given moment, which makes it truly more democratic. Since it constantly asks what the citizens want, the country functions in a way that most closely resembles how the citizens want it to function.

The problem is that this type of democratic system is unenforceable. Throughout history there have been referendums asking what the people wanted directly, as have been the case of the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, the United Kingdom's Exit from the European Union in 2015 or Catalonia's independence referendum in 2017. These referendums were held because the decision to be taken was too momentous to be taken solely from the representatives of the people.

However, if referendums were held for absolutely all the government of the state, 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 taken, 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 confident in their decision. This would make the decision making last for a long time.

This is where representative democracy shows its advantage. The fact of electing representatives who will govern for 4 or more years makes it possible to avoid the uncertainties inherent in direct democratic regimes. The government will make decisions according to its own criteria and depending on how the opposition allows it to do so.. 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.

Bibliographical references

• Casado, Y. (1994): Las democracias in Pastor, M. (ed): Fundamentos de Ciencia Política. Madrid. McGraw Hill.