Written by There are two types of democracy, namely; direct and indirect democracy.
In today’s post, we will look at the meaning and features of both types of democracy.
Thereafter, we will then differentiate between the two types of democracy.
We start with the definition of direct democracy.
Direct Democracy
Direct democracy is a form of democracy in which citizens participate directly in the governance of the state.
It is a type of democracy in which citizens meets periodically to discuss public issues and deliberate on pressing public policy.
Direct democracy is also defined as a system of government where people directly decide on policies without electing representatives to act on their behalf.
Direct democracy is also known as a pure democracy, and it involves citizens directly participating in decision-making, rather than electing representatives to make decisions on their behalf.
Features of Direct Democracy
1. Direct participation of citizens: In a direct democracy, citizens are allowed to directly participate in the decision-making and policy-making of the country through town hall meetings, and public forums.
2. Decentralized decision-making: Another feature of democracy is that decision-making is decentralized.
Direct democracy allows decisions to be made by the citizens themselves, rather than by a few elected officials.
As a result, decision-making is decentralized in direct democracy.
3. Decisions are made by voting: Decision-making in direct democracy is usually done through voting, which may take different forms, such as referendums, and citizen assemblies.
4. Suitability: Direct democracy is mostly suitable for smaller communities, where citizens can easily congregate to discuss and vote on pressing public policy.
Indirect Democracy
Indirect democracy is a form of democracy in which citizens elect representatives to make decisions and act on their behalf in the governance of the state.
Because indirect democracy involves electing representatives to represent the people, it is also called representative democracy.
In an indirect democracy, rather than participate in the decision-making directly, citizens elect representatives to represent their interests and make decisions on their behalf.
Features of Indirect Democracy
1. Representative government: In an indirect democracy, citizens elect representatives to represent their interests in governance.
These representatives run the affairs of the state through the popular support of the people.
If the representatives lose the popular support of the people, then there will lose their legitimacy.
2. People are entrusted with sovereignty: Another important characteristic of sovereignty is that people are usually entrusted with sovereignty.
Sovereignty means absolute control over the activities of the state.
Indirect democracy implies that citizens entrust the sovereignty of the state to the elected representatives.
3. The role of the legislature: Unlike direct democracy, the role of the legislature is highly pronounced in an indirect democracy.
The legislature consists of elected representatives elected to make laws that guide the affairs of everyone in the state.
The legislative branch makes laws that guide the public interest of every citizen.
In an indirect democracy, the general public does not have the power to make laws.
They entrust it in the hands of the representatives elected into the legislative arm of government.
4. Periodic elections: As indirect democracy involve electing representatives to represent the interest of the people, it is necessary that elections are held periodically.
Periodic elections allow citizens to vote for new representatives and vote out underperforming government politicians.
Also, periodic elections ensure that representatives can hold office for a fixed number of years, after which they are expected to renew their mandates through the ballot.
5. Role of Judiciary: In an indirect democracy, the judiciary plays an important role in interpreting the laws made by the elected representative.
The judiciary settles disputes between warring factions, which may be government and citizens or citizen and citizen.
It is, therefore, necessary that the judiciary be independent.
6. Suitability: Indirect democracy is mostly suitable for states with large populations.
A large population means that it will not be convenient for the whole population to gather and discuss public policies and make laws.
So, it is better to elect representatives to make laws and decide on public policies on behalf of the populace.
Difference between Direct Democracy and Indirect Democracy
The differences between direct democracy and indirect democracy are summarized below:
- Direct democracy is a form of democracy where people directly decide on public issues, whereas indirect democracy is a form of democracy where people elect representatives to decide on public issues on their behalf.
- Direct democracy is also called pure democracy while indirect democracy is also called representative democracy.
- Direct democracy is suitable for countries with small populations whereas indirect democracy is suitable for countries with large populations.
- In a direct democracy, the whole population forms the legislature, whereas, in an indirect democracy, the population elect people into the legislative branch of government to make laws on their behalf.
Conclusion
Overall, direct democracy is usually effective in smaller societies where citizens can easily congregate and deliberate on emerging public policies.
However, it can be challenging to implement in larger societies because it will be inconvenient and time-consuming to get people to decide on pressing and emerging issues.
So, direct democracy is suitable for small societies but unsuitable for large societies.
On the other hand, indirect democracy is usually effective in large societies where it will be more effective for citizens to elect their representatives to represent their interests.
It should, however, be noted that due to the huge population of modern states, indirect democracy is the predominant form of democracy.
