In: Psychology
In American Government and Politics Today and answer the following questions.
1. What are the differences between a representative democracy and a direct democracy?
2. Explain two (2) differences between democracy in fifth century B.C. Athens, Greece and in the United States today.
3. What is the difference between an initiative and a referendum?
4. Why are the principles of both majority rule and minority rights important in a democracy ?
1.
Direct democracy was first practiced during the Antiquity in the Greek civilization where people could directly participate in decision making and political affairs of the state. However, today, direct democracy is not very possible because of the increased population. A present day equivalent of direct democracy can be seen in Catalonia and the United Kingdom where people vote on policies directly such as the Brexit referendum or the Catalonian independence where people got to directly influence the outcome of the result.
Today, a more common system is representative democracy. Unlike direct democracies, The term “representative” denotes that people from each and every region of a state elect their own representative or political leader who is accountable to them since he/she represents their needs and demands. In this way, representative democracy is based on people's sovereign power as people elect their representatives and they exert their power to overthrow the govt as well. The election of US Congressm exemplifies representative democracy where citizens from each state elect their representatives to the senate.