Representative Democracy
Representative democracy is a form of indirect rule by the majority of the
electorate. In this system (the only widespread form of democracy in actual
practice), political decision-making is done by a small number of people
elected by the whole electorate. Typically the elected representatives in a
nationallegislaturewill number only a few hundred, regardless of whether
the electorate is a few million or hundreds of million. The usual system is to
divide the nation into geographical constituencies, each sending one or more
representatives to the legislative assembly. In each constituency several will
compete to be elected, and, depending on the details of the electoral laws, the
person or persons most popular with the voters will be elected. It may also be
the case that the political executive is elected by the people, especially as in a
presidential system like that of France or the USA.
There are two problems that lead critics sometimes to challenge the
‘democracy’ claim of representative democracy. The first is that the vagaries
ofvoting systemsand voting patterns may well result in the control of the
legislative assembly lying in the hands of a group representing very much less
than a majority of the population. It is common in the United Kingdom, for
example, for a government to be formed by a party which, though having a
majority of members of the House of Commons, was supported at the polls by
perhaps only a third of the total electorate. Nevertheless, this highly ‘unrepre-
sentative’ group may be able to force the passage of laws bitterly disliked by a
majority of the population for the whole term of a parliament; furthermore,
each member of the ruling party would claim to be representing all of their
constituents, whichever candidate they had voted for. The second point relates
to the whole doctrine of representation. There are really only two models of
how the mass of the individuals can be represented by a few people. One,
delegation, involves elected members being instructed by those they repre-
sent exactly how they should vote in the legislative assembly. In this way the
majority of preferences of each constituency are directly transmitted to the
assembly, and the mass of the population can be said, in some sense, to have
their views turned into law. The other model, most ably and famously
defended by EdmundBurkein his addresses to his own constituents in
18th-century Britain, rejects the idea of binding delegation. Instead the
representative is seen as chosen for their qualities, and perhaps for the general
principles on which they stand for election. Once chosen, however, they
become a free agent, entitled to cast their legislative vote as they believe best,
regardless of the opinions of their constituents. Atbestthis latter model is what
is practised in actual representative democracies. In fact the usual system does
not even give the voter the chance of selecting someone who will at least stand
by their own convictions. Instead most electoral systems operate so that only
Representative Democracy