Representative Democracy

Representative Democracy

Project submitted to: Dr.B.K.Mahakul (Faculty of Political Science)

Submitted by: Rohit Mohan

Section-A ROLL NO. 116 SEMESTER- II

Representative Democracy

Hidayatullah National Law University Raipur, Chhattisgarh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am highly elated to work on the topic, Representative Democracy. At the outset, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and thank my teacher, Dr. B.K Mahakul for putting his trust in me and giving me a project topic such as this and for having the faith in me to deliver. My gratitude also goes out to the staff and administration of HNLU for the infrastructure in the form of our library and IT Lab that was a source of great help for the completion of this project. I would like to thank my family and friends for their constant support and motivation which urged me to work hard on this topic. Rohit Mohan Semester - II

Representative Democracy

Table of contents
1. Acknowledgments........................................................................................ 2. Introduction i. Objectives............................................................................. ii. Research Methodology......................................................... iii. Scope and Limitation............................................................ 3. Meaning of democratic socialism................................................................. 4. Essential features of democratic socialism................................................... 5. Growth and spread of democratic socialism................................................. 6. Democratic socialism in India...................................................................... 7. Criticism of democratic socialism................................................................. 8. Conclusion.................................................................................................... 9. References.................................................................................................... 4 5 5 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 2

Representative Democracy
Introduction
Representative Democracy: A Contextual Outline Representative democracy is a variety of democracy founded on the principle of elected people representing a group of people, as opposed to direct democracy.[1]. For example, two countries which use representative democracy are the United Kingdom (a constitutional monarchy) and Germany (a federal republic). It is an element of both the parliamentary system and presidential system of government and is typically used in a lower chamber such as the House of Commons (UK) or Bundestag (Germany), and is generally curtailed by constitutional constraints such as an upper chamber. It has been described by some political theorists as Polyarchy.

Objectives:
What is Democracy? Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Democracy allows people to participate equallyeither directly or through elected representativesin the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination. What is Representative Democracy? It means that people elect their representatives to power to run the government for them. Representative democracy works in a particular way. People group themselves into political parties according to their views and objectives. These parties choose their candidates. During the campaign before an election they announce to the people their would-be programmes and policies. This is known as the party manifesto. Some people contest elections as independent candidates too, if they do not wish to join any political party. The role of political parties is very important in a democratic system. The members of political parties keep the people informed about important issues by holding public meetings, for either supporting or opposing the policies of the government. Thus, the
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political parties help the people in knowing what they should expect and in turn mould the public opinion.

Role of Representative Democracy in India According to our Constitution, India is a "Sovereign, Secular, Socialist, Democratic Republic." It has 28 States and 7 Union Territories. With a population of approximately 1.2 Billion, India happens to be the largest democracy and second most populous country in the world. Indian polity is a multi-party democracy, based on the adult franchise system of voting. That is any Indian citizen of age 18 and above, who is not debarred by law, can vote in the Indian elections, at national, state and local levels. India is a parliamentary democracy and a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the Prime Minister is the head of government. He or she should be chosen by the MPs (Member of Parliaments) of the ruling party or the coalition that comes to power, and is the focal point of Political System in India. However, The Prime Minister of India is formally appointed by The President of India. Presently Dr. Manmohan Singh is The Prime Minister of India. 1.1)

Research Methodology:

This project work is descriptive & analytical in approach. It is largely based on secondary & electronic sources of data. Books & other references as guided by faculty of sociology are primarily helpful for the completion of this project. Websites, e-articles and books have been referred as suggested by the faculty members. 1.2)

Scope and Limitation:

This project work is limited to representative democracy. It is purely based on theoretical aspect of democratic socialism. It does not deal with the aspects of direct democracy (e.g. the Athenians government) of the world and is only concentrated on representative (e.g. United States) democracy.
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How is United States a Representative Democracy?
To answer the question, let's first define the important parts:

A Democracy in the simplest form means a system of government where individual citizens have a direct [and meaningful] vote in their government. There are many different kinds of democracies - variations on what is a citizen, who can vote, and who or what they vote for. However, the overarching characteristics of the democracy is that at least a majority of citizen have the power to vote, that they have a choice when voting, that their votes dictate the direction of government policy, and that the citizen is (reasonably) frequently called upon to vote on government matter.

A Representative form of government is one where (some) citizens chose another citizen to make political decisions for them. That is, rather than a citizen being directly involved in politics and government, they chose a proxy to make their choice for them. Representative forms of government often have multiple layers of this action - a proxy is chosen at (say) the village level, then the village proxies get together and chose a county representative, who then may chose a regional proxy. How these representatives are initially picked depends on the actual system of government being used - voting is common, but not by any means universal.

Combining these two definitions, you find that a representative democracy is a system where the majority of citizens vote for a proxy to represent them in government - such representatives then govern in the citizen's name, and are (at least occasionally) forced to go back to the citizen to be re-authorized (i.e. re-elected) to hold their position.

The United States is a multi-faceted Representative Democracy: we elect representatives in many aspects of our government form, all of which have specific duties and limits on power. We periodically have elections to either retain or replace our representatives. And a majority of the population is allowed to vote (though sadly, less than half does).

Representative Democracy

Advantages of Representative Democracy

1. Democracy provides for frequent elections after a specified period of time. This ensures that unpopular governments are voted out of office and replaced by a new administration that will be forced to implement favorable policies so as to stay in power. 2. Democracy affords citizens their right to elect the representatives of their own choice. 3. Democracy affords the most popular candidates the opportunity to be elected. 4. Democracy ensures that wealth is evenly distributed. This is possible as the peoples representatives fight to have their fair share of development funds. 5. Through democracy, a people have the opportunity to have their voices heard and their wishes fulfilled. 6. Democracy allows for many political parties to compete for power. This gives candidates and the electorate a broad field of parties for candidates and different candidates to choose.

Disadvantages of representative Democracy

1. Because majority rule is a central characteristic of democracy, the danger always exists that a majority, free of restrictions on its power, will oppress members of the minority. This so-called "tyranny of the majority" .The U.S. Constitution avoided this drawback of representative democracy with a series of measures and safeguards designed to protect the rights of those not in the majority. These include two houses of Congress, the presidential veto and the protections in the Bill of Rights. 2. Citizens in a representative democracy elect their leaders for fixed terms of office and have the right to change them by choosing others in the next election. In the United States, members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms; Senators, six years; and presidents, four years. In addition, there are state and local elections in which voters elect governors, state legislators, city mayors, city council members and other elected leaders. Regular elections encourage short-term thinking by elected officials, causing them to focus on the next election at the expense of what is best for the citizenry. This discourages the development of long-term public policy solutions
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to existing problems. Further, the frequent elections--at national, state and local levels--may cause voter fatigue. 3. Voters choose elected representatives from their communities, and those representatives act on behalf of their constituents. In the U.S. House of Representatives, for example, members reside in and represent the people of their districts. Serving constituent needs and interests in a representative democracy often leads elected officials to favour local interests over policies that benefit the nation as a whole. The controversy over congressional earmarks reflects this issue, as many elected officials steer federal money and projects to their districts, benefiting their constituents. This may serve a legislator's re-election prospects, but the projects and money may hold no benefit for the nation as a whole.

Pros & Cons of Representative Democracy

Representative governments have elected individuals who pass laws and make decisions, in contrast to direct democracy, which is a democratic government in which any citizens who wish to participate may do so. For example, in a representative government, elected officials create and vote on laws. In a direct democracy, the entire population votes on laws. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada and many other countries have representative governments, although some local and state laws in the U.S. also permit forms of direct democracy.

Pro: Elected Officials May Be More Informed

Elected officials have the time and resources to make them fully informed on issues. In contrast, citizens may not have the time or ability to learn about each issue, which makes them less prepared to vote. Elected officials may also be in a better position than direct democracies to protect the rights of minorities and individuals.

Pro: Officials Can Be Elected Democratically

Although citizens don't directly vote on issues in a representative government, they do vote for their elected officials. This gives citizens the opportunity -- even the responsibility -- to participate in the government, and it allows citizens to influence governmental policy.

Representative Democracy
Pro: Representative Government is Efficient
Holding a nationwide vote on every issue would be very time-consuming and expensive, and choosing a fair place and time for votes would be a challenge. Representative government is more efficient. However, improvements in technology may make direct democracy more feasible.

Con: Citizens Don't Participate

Representative governments don't allow citizens to participate as fully as in direct democracies. Elected officials may not be as effective as citizens are at making some decisions. This is because they may not have a personal investment in the outcome. In addition, citizens may not inform themselves on political topics if they have no voice or vote.

Con: Elected Officials May Not Represent Constituents

Elected officials are frequently wealthier than the constituents they represent. They might not have the same opinions or beliefs as their constituents; they may not even know what their constituents believe. In addition, it may be impossible for an elected official to represent a heterogeneous constituency.

Con: Elected Officials Aren't Accountable

Often, the public does not hold elected officials in a representative government accountable for their decisions, apart from the risk of not being re-elected. They may break campaign promises or make decisions that differ from the wishes of their constituents.

Problems of Representative Democracy in India

Of the two forms of democracy, direct and representative, only the latter is possible in the modern State. The State of today is large. It cannot be visualised by the citizen and fails to satisfy the criterion of the ideal State of Aristotle. The type of government that the Greeks practised with such success is impossible in it. In the recent past, to render more effective the participation of the people in their government, the representative system has been supplemented in some democracies by the devices of direct legislation by the people, the Initiative, the Referendum, and the Recall.
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The defects of representative government have become of late increasingly manifest. Under the stress of the extraordinary political and economic conditions resulting from the last War, democratic governments in some countries, notably in Italy and Germany, have been replaced by dictatorships. In experts opinion this "signal failure of democracy" has been due to the difficulty of re-adjustment in an unprecedented economic crisis, to the sense of defeat, "disillusionment and widespread neurosis," to the lack of faith in democracy and an inexperience with its methods, and above all to "an insufficient appreciation of the paramount claims of race." With this analysis of the causes of the failure of democracy in the post-war world or with the desire that in this country we should avoid the defects that have become evident from this experience no one would disagree. Of the system of representative government as it has functioned Mr. Srinivasa Iyengar is a severe critic. To him representative government realizes only very imperfectly his idea of a "complete democracy". He writes: "The system of representation, betraying a strange lack of confidence in the democratic ideal, is devised to secure party advantage and to minimise administrative inconvenience which is only another name for fear of change." For this astonishing proposition the presence of Second Chambers, checks and balances and safeguards of all sorts in most modern constitutions provide the evidence. This is neither fair nor accurate. It is a misrepresentation of the intended or actual purpose of representative systems. Such devices as Second Chambers, checks and balances, which appear today to obstruct the progress of democratic change, were largely the products of an admiration for the English Constitution that was widespread in the last two centuries and that made it the model for other constitutions. In the eighteenth century view the excellence of the English Constitution depended on the checks and balances that were supposed to form part of it. Montesquieu had seen in these mechanisms the secret of the Englishmans liberty. It was not realised that the bicameralism of the English Parliament was an accident of history and that there was not a separation of powers in the constitution, but rather a novel and fruitful combination of them in the Cabinet System that was being evolved. Every country that desired liberty sought to set up this theoretical constitution with elaborate checks and balances of one power set against another. It should also be remembered that when representative institutions were first introduced their object was merely the prevention of arbitrary government and the preservation of liberty and not the achievement of large social changes. A negative purpose was necessarily reflected in institutions of a negative character.
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Nor were there any developed parties to exploit them for their own advantage. Whether justified or not today, the checks and balances of constitutional systems have served an important purpose in making smooth a transition from a society based on privilege to one founded largely on the principle of equality. Most recent constitutions embodying the representative principle, far from displaying a distrust in democracy, have, on the contrary, shown an undue faith in the efficacy of its mechanisms and have devised ingenious schemes for ensuring the supremacy of the popular will. The complex schemes of direct legislation in recent democratic constitutions of Europe cannot be held to betray any lack of confidence in democracy or even in the representative system, as the purpose of these devices has been to educate the electorate more than to correct the abuses of the representative system. They have also obviously the purpose of facilitating democratic action in every possible way. Indeed it may be said that in most of these constitutions, their makers have set up theoretically perfect systems rather than practicable schemes of democratic government.2 Perhaps, among modern constitutions, it could alone be maintained of the constitutions of the United States and of India that the intention of their framers was consciously to circumscribe the action of the representative bodies in the interests of an established order. In the United States the industrial and commercial interests sought to secure their interests and the Federalist Party which was still an incoherent group was their instrument in 1786. Even so the actual working of the constitution has not completely fulfilled the expectations of its framers.3 In practice the constitution proved flexible enough to enable its survival in a changing world; it has permitted the ad hoc planning under Roosevelt since 1932.4 If the experience of other countries is any guide it could be maintained that constitutional limitations will be powerless to prevent democracy from effecting the changes that it desires with urgency. In India, of course, the vested interests that have sought and obtained protection are numerous and have nullified any pretence that may be made of the constitution being representative and much less democratic. The point need not be laboured that a representative system need not bein fact, it is not in most casesa device to secure party advantage or an obstacle in the way of changes desired by a people. If it were, it would be folly on our part to set it up as an ideal. To maintain that democracy is the only way of assuring the happiness and welfare of the people and at the same time to assert that the

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representative system is a device to secure party advantage are surely contradictory. One cannot blow hot and cold in the same breath. Mr. Srinivasa Iyengar uncritically repeats the defects of democracy pointed out by its critics since the time of Lecky, Maine and Sir James Fitz Stephen till Ostrogorski, Ludovici and Mencken.6 The control of the electorate over the representatives is "largely theoretical ". The elector is never well informed to be a competent judge of his representatives actions. "This is especially the case where the democracy as a whole is not adequately educated as in India." (17) The elector does not choose his representative nor is he in constant contact with him. The parties choose the members of the legislatures. The elector is hypnotised by their propaganda. Existing electoral systems are imperfect and do not recognise the need to secure the services of able and experienced men of character for democracy. Corruption and professionalism vitiate democratic politics and these have vastly increased with the unlimited tenures of members in legislative bodies and the payment of their services. And so on.
1

A review of Mr. S. Srinivasa Iyengars Address of the above title 2 Headlam Morley: The New Democratic Constitutions of Europe. 3 Beard: Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy. 4 Hawgood: Modern Constitutions since 1787. 5 Clarke: The New Federalism. 6 See E. M. Saits Democracy for an admirable summary of these criticisms.

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CONCLUSION
The invention of representative government is often taken to be the central achievement of modern politics. In its European homeland, it took seven centuries (and quite a few rebellions and revolutionary upheavals) to consolidate representative institutions. Church hierarchies had to be resisted in the name of true religion. Monarchs had to be brought under the control of assemblies. Legislatures then had to be subjected to democratic election, and in turn these democratic elements had to be grafted onto pre-democratic institutions of representation. The model of representative democracy that resulted is today familiar as a cluster of territoriallybound governing institutions that include written constitutions, independent judiciaries and laws that guarantee such procedures as periodic election of candidates to legislatures, limitedterm holding of political offices, voting by secret ballot, competitive political parties, the right to assemble in public and liberty of the press. Compared with the previous assembly-based forms of democracy associated with the classical Greek world, the invention of representative government and its subsequent democratisation greatly extended the geographic scale of institutions of self-government; it also fundamentally altered the meaning of democracy. Representative democracy came to signify a type of government in which people, understood as voters faced with a genuine choice between at least two alternatives, are free to elect others who then act in defence of their interests, that is, represent them by deciding matters on their behalf. Much ink and blood was to be spilled in defining what exactly representation meant, who was entitled to represent whom and what had to be done when representatives snubbed or disappointed those whom they were supposed to represent. But what was common to the new age of representative democracy that matured during the early years of the twentieth century was the belief that good government was government by representatives. Often contrasted with monarchy, representative democracy was praised as a way of governing better by openly airing differences of opinion not only among the represented themselves, but also between representatives and those whom they are supposed to represent. Representative government was also hailed for encouraging the rotation of leadership, guided by merit. It was said to introduce competition for power that in turn enabled elected representatives to test out their political competence before others. The earliest champions of
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representative democracy also offered a more pragmatic justification of representation. It was seen as the practical expression of a simple reality: that it wasnt feasible for all of the people to be involved all of the time, even if they were so inclined, in the business of government. Given that reality, the people must delegate the task of government to representatives who are chosen at regular elections. The job of these representatives is to monitor the expenditure of public money, domestic and foreign policies, and all other actions of government. Representatives make representations on behalf of their constituents to the government and its bureaucracy. Representatives debate issues and make laws. They decide who will govern and how on behalf of the people. What are the current contours and probable futures of representative democracy in this sense? In practice, there has always been a gap between the ideals of representative democracy and its actually existing forms. Some observers draw from this the conclusion that expressions of dissatisfaction with representative democracy are normal, even healthy reminders of the precious contingency of a form of government that has no other serious competitors. According to other observers, euphoria about representative government is unwarranted. The mechanisms of representation that lie at the heart of actually existing democracies are said to be afflicted with problems. These observers claim that such difficulties are nurturing public concerns about the future of representative democracy itself. In democratic systems as different as the United States, India, Germany, Great Britain, Argentina and Australia, these observers point to evidence of a creeping malaise: formal membership of political parties has dipped; voter turnout at elections is tending to become more volatile; levels of trust in politicians and government are generally in decline; public perceptions of the deformation of policy making by private power, above all by organised business interests, are rising. When considered together, these disparate trends have encouraged some analysts and citizens to draw the conclusion that the system of representative democracy is breeding political disaffection. Others have argued that the ideals of representative democracy are themselves now under siege, even that we are heading towards an epoch of 'post-democracy

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References Books referred:

Websites referred: 1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_democracy 2. www.preservearticles.com/.../representative-democracy.html 3. www.preservearticles.com/.../representative-democracy.html

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