“Democracy can not consist solely of elections that are nearly always fictitious and are managed by rich landowners and professional politicians”
Che Guevara 1961
At it’s essence there are just two forms of Democracy. Direct Democracy where every citizen votes on every decision the government makes and Representative Democracy where elected citizens represent the electorate in a centralized government.
Most modern Democracies use a combination of the two. Almost all Democracies use some form of initiative or referendum to get the citizens direct vote on certain matters.
Direct Democracy is characterized by the electorate directly in control of the government. Citizens participate in face to face meetings to make binding decisions for the elected officials. Those include recall elections for the officials and suing the officials for breach of (campaign) promises.
The best known and highest functioning Direct Democracies are in Switzerland. Two Cantons use it exclusively and the entire country uses forms of Direct Democracy. In Switzerland there is no voter registration. Every citizen gets an election packet and casts his or her vote on the appointed day, generally 4 times per year. Decisions made by the electorate are binding on the officials of government.
Representative Democracy occurs when the citizens elect fellow citizens to represent them in the Government. Representatives are can be elected by majority or plurality of the citizens. If the Head of State is also elected it is called a Presidential Republic. If the Head of State is picked by the (majority) representatives it is called a Parliamentary Republic.
Almost all Representative Democracies use some items from Direct Democracy, namely referendums, initiatives and recall elections. These items provide for direct involvement of the citizens giving direct orders to the government, while still under the representative banner.
In any Representative Democracy the question is often asked about the percentage of citizens participating in any given election. Voter apathy, voter requirements and availability of polling places have a direct impact on that percentage.
Parliamentary Democracy
Parliamentary Democracy is a system where the citizens elect representatives to govern them in a Parliament which is responsible for passing laws and budgets. The government is then formed by the political party that ‘won’ the election. The government stays in power for a specific amount of time, or until the ruling party no longer controls a majority in the Parliament.
Parliamentary Democracies are generally headed by a Prime Minister who is selected from the majority party and serves at the whim of the Parliament which means that a simple majority vote of ‘no confidence’ from the Parliament is enough to dismiss the PM and cause new elections. In some countries the PM can also call for elections at any time to solidify power. Others have ‘hard scheduled’ elections and will live with a ‘minority government’ after a vote of no confidence until the next scheduled election.
Presidential Democracy
In this system not only are the lawmakers elected by the population but the head of state is also an elected office generally called President. The President has direct control of his cabinet and diplomats with the ability to appoint and dismiss. The President is the head of state and head of the Executive branch of government.
In a Presidential Democracy neither the President or the Legislators can be easily removed from office, which lends itself to gridlock when the executive is from one party and the legislature is controlled by another.
There is a little used hybrid system where the President (Executive) and a Prime Minister (Head of State) are both elected offices.
Semi Direct Democracy
This type of Democracy features some forms of Representative and some of Direct, most usually by means of referendum and initiative. Switzerland uses this form and many of the states in the US use initiative and referendum to take direct input from the voters.
In the US there is no Direct Democracy at the Federal level, but much of the population uses initiative and referendum at the State, County and Municipal level. In New England the Town Meeting form of direct democracy is still in use successfully. Direct input from citizens with voting on the issues presented is quite common there.
Constitutional Monarchy
Many countries didn’t overthrow their monarchy, but gave them increasingly limited roles in governing the country. England passed the Bill of Rights in 1689 which marked the beginning of the end of the rule of the Monarch. Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands, Japan, and others have kept the Monarch as a ceremonial position. Many of these countries also had a powerful upper chamber of the Legislature populated by near royalty but these have either been made ceremonial or switched to elected positions.
Republic
Per the example of the United States in 1789 a Republic elects the legislature and the Chief Executive (President). Hallmarks of a Republic today include limited terms for the President and direct election of both houses of the Legislature.
Some legislative districts use a ‘proportional’ voting system where voters choose two or three legislative seats in the same ballot. The winners have to have a certain percentage of the vote to be seated. If not enough candidates make that percentage the remaining candidates will square off in a runoff election with the same rules for the remaining seat(s).
Liberal Democracy
Liberal Democracy is a variation of Representative Democracy that has constitutionally protected rights of individuals to prevent the majority from infringing on those rights or the rights of the minority. Liberal Democracy can be either a Constitutional Monarchy or a Republic, the key is the protection of the minority. When the US ratified the Bill of Rights in 1791 it was not a Liberal Democracy as the Bill did not apply to women, slaves or natives.
The rest of this list should be considered mainly a theoretical exercise.
Socialist or Social Democracy
At some level, most Socialist governments make use of democratic principles. Though ‘free and fair’ elections might be a joke, many Socialist governments have ‘worker’s councils’ or ‘collectives’ to take care of mainly local concerns. China and Vietnam might fit this category but are usually considered State Capitalists.
Anarchist
Anarchists can’t decide among themselves whether Democracy is tyrannical by nature or not. It is hard to take this faction seriously.
Sortition
Sortition requires government functionaries to be chosen randomly. The theory holds that random selection would represent not only the majority but also the minority. It also presumes that a randomly chosen citizen would be more honorable and trustworthy than elected officials.
These three (there are many more) theoretical models have never been tried in real world situations. Most have glaring holes or need a really specific set of circumstances which almost never exist in real life.
This concludes the portion on democracy. The last article of this series will deal with the marriage between Capitalism and Democracy. I thank you for staying with it thus far.
I would like to know your thoughts on the state of Democracy in the 21st Century. Does it still work as intended? Can it/Will it correct itself? Is there hope or despair on the horizon?
Words and ideas are mine. I used this Wikipedia Page for historical perspective and accuracy. In this article I specifically stayed mostly with the terms and titles listed here for clarity and order.
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