The 6 types of Democracy and their characteristics

A review of the different varieties of this system of political participation and governance.

Democracy is a type of governance within society that refers to a balance of forces between citizens and the representatives they elect to give them the power to legislate and execute those policies that concern them or seem to them to be a priority.

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

What is democracy?

The terminology democracy dates back to the beginning of the 5th century, in ancient Greece. More specifically, it was in Athens that this political system was born, albeit with very important limitations.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 these are suffrage (the right to vote), freedom of speech, and freedom of political and freedom of political action (to take part in 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 and most common types of democracy of our times.

1. Direct democracy

This is the type of democracy most desired and still desired in overpopulated countries, since direct democracy is usually implemented in areas with few inhabitants. is usually implemented in areas with few inhabitants.This is a system of direct participation, as its name indicates, without intermediaries or representatives. Normally the debates and decisions are instrumentalized by means of the assembly system.

2. Liberal

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

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 fundamental requirement of this model. of this model. In addition, there is a system of control over the rulers that monitors the quality of their mandate.

3. Christian Democratic

Christian democratic democracy was very widespread in some European countries in the 20th century, in countries such as Germany, Ireland or Italy.in countries such as 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, to more conservative legislations and to a liberalization of the economy.

4. Indirect or representative

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

5. Partial

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

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

6. Popular

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

These systems are socialist and progressive in characterand the governing party holds hegemony, nationalizes enterprises 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 d'état, after which the dominant force seeks to legitimize its power through free elections.

In many cases they emerge with overwhelming popular support. which, over time, is eroded as the regime perpetuates itself in power for long periods, failing to live up to its initial promise to return power to the masses.