Essay On Representative Democracy

‘We must recognize that representative democracy has failed, both politically and judicially as well as socially. As a consequence, we must return to the fundamental meaning of ‘democracy,’ the power of the demos to govern itself. Just as the dictatorship of the proletariat rapidly became the dictatorship over the proletariat, so modern democracy quickly became a power exercised over the demos. In reality the people have no power. They neither make the laws no govern.’ – Jacque Ellul (1992)

There are generally two forms of democracy. These consist of direct democracies and representative democracies. Direct democracy involves the direct participation of the people in the government, whereas representative democracy consists of representatives elected by the citizens in order to make decisions on their behalf and for the good of the people. In theory, a representative democracy is a form of government that combines both the hierarchy of government and the voice of the people. Political representatives are elected by the people with the hopes and expectations that their decisions will work towards a common goal of helping the people and nation. The hierarchical aspect of a representative democracy provides competence while the electoral aspect ensures there is a form of democratic guidance. In a representative democracy every individual is guaranteed certain rights, freedom and a level of respect. Laws are put into place and are constantly evolving in order to meet the changing needs and wants of the people. This paper will discuss the effectiveness of a representative democracy to provide a platform through which individuals in a society can be adequately represented at a higher level. This will be achieved by explorin...

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...ar more practical in a larger society, an elected government needs to remain within the confinements of the constitution and the law, rather then under the control of those exercising power. However, if we want to establish a truly democratic state, we need to create a form of government similar to direct democracy which is not based on delegations of power between high ranking institutions and which allows citizens to participate directly in the process of setting up schemes for the wellbeing of their societies. Unfortunately in this day and age, representative democracy is the only form of democracy, which is sustainable in the larger and more complex societies such as Australia and the US. Until there is a way to counter act and rectify this situation, there will never be a truly democratic society, because representative democracy is not really democratic.