What is democracy?

Democracy is a broad term that refers to a system of government in which supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly. It generally takes one of two forms: direct democracy and representative (indirect) democracy.

A direct democracy is a system of government in which citizens make policy decisions and pass laws directly rather than through elected representatives, typically using majority rule. It empowers voters to directly influence government by bypassing legislative bodies through mechanisms such as referendums, initiatives, and recalls. These mechanisms most often operate at the state or local level.

A well-known historical example is Ancient Athens. While direct democracy is rare at the national level, many countries use direct democratic mechanisms for specific issues. Switzerland is the most prominent modern example of incorporating direct democracy at the national level.

An indirect democracy, also known as a representative democracy, is a system in which citizens elect representatives to make laws and public policy on their behalf. Representative democracies can be further categorized as either liberal or illiberal.

A liberal democracy is a representative democracy characterized by the rule of law, protections for individual rights and civil liberties, and constitutional limits on the power of elected officials.

An illiberal democracy is a representative democracy in which elected leaders face weak or few constitutional constraints, allowing them to govern with fewer protections for individual rights and democratic institutions.

Representative democracies are overwhelmingly more common than direct democracies. In fact, every modern country commonly classified as a democracy relies primarily on representative democracy at the national level.