Indirect Democracy

The study of democracy is very important and also difficult sociological research, after all it is a form of government by the people and for the people. A democracy is a form of government where people rule themselves, unlike a monarchy or a dictatorship. In the past century, a democracy has evolved drastically with ideologies such as communism, socialism and capitalism being integrated into the system. Broadly speaking, democracy as a form of government can be classified into two types namely, indirect and direct democracy. The meanings of these two types of democracies is quite simple and a direct democracy involves the vote of people in all legislative matters, policies and all important decisions. In contrast to that, an indirect form of democracy is where people elect their leaders to the legislative bodies and the entire legislative body takes all the decisions, makes policies and laws on the behalf of the people and society. Such a democracy is often also known as a representative democracy.

What is Indirect Democracy?

An indirect or representative democracy has been the most popular government by far, in fact it is more popular than direct democracy. As mentioned above, indirect or representative democracy consists of a society which elects its leaders and representatives to a legislative body. This legislative body makes laws, forms policies, takes decisions and runs or rather operates the nation. The people's role comes in only during the elections. The mix of a greater executive power and the immense trust of nations people on the shoulders of the legislature have proved to be the driving power of the success of the economy. Some prominent examples include United Kingdom, United States, India, Israel, etc.

The people's participation is thus a bit lesser as compared to direct democracy. In some nations, people and governments have made efforts to fuse together the direct and indirect forms of democracy where in the people can initiate laws or appeal to the government or suggest reform. Though the executive power has been maintained with the government and legislature, the idea has proved to be a success in several situations. Some direct democracy examples include, Switzerland and Ancient Athens.

Pros and Cons of Indirect or Representative Democracy

There's quite a debate regarding the pros and cons of the indirect form of democracy. Take a look.

Pros

• The first advantage being, a great executive legislative body that is largely controlled by the constitution and laws of the nation. High priority decisions, laws and policies are formulated and executed very effectively by this legislative body.
• Apart from that, legislative bodies which are compromised of several different people chosen by people, tend to have an ability to take very good well-balanced decisions, especially, when it is an emergency.
• In an indirect democracy since all the different factions of the society are sufficiently represented, the sense of democracy is fulfilled.
• The law the legal arm of a representative democracy always tends to be highly just and well-balanced to towards the society.

Cons

• One of the biggest disadvantages is that there is huge risk of inefficiency and corruption.
• Secondly, under-representation of minorities is another great risk.
• In several cases, legislative bodies of a representative democracy have taken wrong decisions.

No form of government is perfect, and there are going to be times when even the disadvantages might get highlighted. The best form of an indirect or representative form of democracy is the one which is dynamic and changes according to the need of time by accepting the ideas and ideologies from other forms of governments.