What is the difference between a direct democracy and a representative democracy?

Answer 1

Direct is where you vote directly for measures and bills which become law.

Representative is where you elect representatives to vote those things for you. The U.S. is a democratic republic or representative type of democracy where we elect Representatives and Senators to vote on our behalf.

On some issues we do vote directly - for example state and local initiatives which are put on the ballot. A simple majority determines whether those become law or not. In California for example: Prop 13 became law and locked tax rates in for homeowners. Prop 65 became law and labelling and information is now required on materials and in buildings which contain listed hazardous materials.

At the local level, a representative form of government is when you vote for city council members, a mayor, school board members, sheriff and other key positions. You then don't have to vote every day on routine issues, which would be very expensive, complicated and tedious.

The bad thing about represntative government is the elected leaders' decisions don't always follow what the majority wants. The majority may want lower taxes, however a leader may instead vote to increase taxes to pay for programs and projects which he/she feels is important.

If the public disagrees with a decision made by an elected representative, they have several options. 1) They can elect a new representative during the next election. 2) They can remove the representative by recall or impeachment (example: California Governor; Gray Davis). 3) They can challenge the decision in court.

I hope that helps...

Answer 2

Examples Of Representative Democracy

Answer 3

Representative Democracy Examples

Answer 4

A representative democracy is what we have in the US. We (the people) elect people to vote for us at the city, state and national levels. There are certain items which the public votes on at the state and local levels. At the federal level, we elect our state reps through direct voting, but the president is elected by way of the electoral college, who supposedly cast their votes based on the popular votes of their state.
In a direct democracy, the popular vote wins.

Answer 5

In a direct democracy, the citizens vote on EVERYTHING. In a representative democracy, they elect people to do most of that for them.

Answer 6

A direct democracy is where votes from the entire public are counted directly and used to select something.

A representative democracy is when the voters choose REPRESENTATIVES to go to a larger congregation of people and present their viewpoints and, hopefully, vote the way they want them to!

Since we have Senators & Representatives in Congress voting on the issues FOR us, that is representative democracy.

Answer 7

Direct democracy may have only existed in places like ancient Greece. Every citizen in the city-state voted directly on every issue.

In a representational democracy (which the US is in theory, not practice) is that the citizens elect representatives (thus members of the House are called Representatives) who vote on issues on our behalf, leaving the rest of us to go about our daily lives.

Direct democracy may once again become possible thanks to the Internet. Image inf instead of only Congressmen being allowed to vote on laws, every citizen could vote electronically.

Answer 8

1) in direct Democracy we are voting for anything but representative senators and other elected persons are voting for us
2) Direct democracy is the real democracy

Answer 9

Direct: everyone votes on every single issue.
Representative: people vote for representatives whom they believe will represent their views when the representatives vote on issues. This is what the US is.

Answer 10

One is MOB rules the other is you elect a person to represent a group of people.