Legitimacy, Representative Democracy free essay sample

What are three main strengths of Representative democracy? Representative democracy is a form of democracy which emerged in the 17th century that implements the majority of citizens in a state are represented by a minority of office holders, in the UK we have Representative Democracy through Parliament. Citizens are represented by Members of Parliament who are elected through their constituencies. Representative democracy is considered a more effective form of government than direct democracy because of the following such strengths, practically it would be considered unrealistic for citizens who are not so well-informed on political matters to make political decisions, therefore Representative democracy entails that citizens who lack political understanding may choose a representative who is educated on political concerns to make decisions on their behalf, in the UK citizens vote for which MP they want to represent their constituency, the winner of which would gain a seat in the House of Commons and represent the citizens of the respected constituency, another such strength of Representative democracy is that it does not allow for discrimination of any minority groups concerned, for example if Representative democracy had not been put into practice it would virtually almost always be the case that the non-property owning majority of a state would overrule the votes of the prop erty-owning minority (i. We will write a custom essay sample on Legitimacy, Representative Democracy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page e. landowners, merchants, manufacturers and entrepreneurs) in any decision, this would be considered undemocratic because it does not express the individual rights of the property-owning minority however if they are represented by one office holder such as a MP holding a constituency seat in the House of Commons, the concerns of all voters will be represented, a third strength of Representative democracy is that it is obviously more practical in the modern age to allow certain number of office holders to represent the decisions of the state’s citizens rather than to assemble all of its citizens en mass to exercise their democratic rights.