The following features are typical of all representative democracies.
- Representation: Only a large group of representatives elected by the people (legislators) can make laws. There is no room for autocrats or juntas.
- Regular elections: Most people don’t like elected officials to turn into kings or dictators, so representative democracies usually have fixed terms of service and frequent elections, usually on a regular, schedule.
- Legislating: Elected representatives rely on competition and collaboration to attract a majority of votes for their proposals from their fellow legislators in a congress, legislature, or parliament.
- Accountability: Very importantly, elections are opportunities for citizens to hold their representatives accountable for their performance as legislators.
If a representative democracy also has an executive branch, then it becomes a republic. All republics are representative democracies, but not all representative democracies are republics.
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You can check out other forms of democracy in our short course “America: Republic or Democracy.”
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