A Democracy is a form of government that is defined as “the rule of many”. The right to vote for representation, guarantee of basic rights and compromise are key elements of this system. According to the text American Government: Institutions and Policies, there are two forms of democracy, direct and representative. A direct or participatory democracy allows for the people to form a consensus on the key issues that affect them. On the other hand, a representative democracy consists of the people electing representatives who act on their behalf. Our Founding Fathers, consisting of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Framers of the Constitution, believed that a representative democracy worked best in regards to operating the …show more content…
Some may argue that this form of democracy is not effective for many reasons. One example is that specific barriers may prevent some citizens from having a say. Such as women, slaves, minors and individuals who did not own property being excluded from voting matters in fourth century Greece (Wilson, Dilulio and Bose, 2014, page 6). To add, larger populations make openly debating viewpoints more complicated, a key characteristic of this system. In contrast, a representative democracy or elitist theory of democracy, is a system where citizens make informed decisions and vote for elected officials to act on their behalf. A party system and regular elections are two key characteristics of this system of government. In a like manner to direct democracy, there are many deficiencies associated with a representative democracy. One example is dominating views belonging to the groups with higher socioeconomic status. In comparison to participatory democracy, there are also groups of individuals being excluded due to gender and