representative democracy
noun
plural representative democracies
: democracy in which the power is exercised by the people through their elected representatives : a form of government in which the people elect representatives to make decisions, policies, laws, etc.
One challenge to representative democracy is that voters must select from a small number of candidates to indicate their wants across many policy areas. Each candidate campaigns on a portfolio of different policies but none of these portfolios necessarily matches what the voter would prefer.—
Seth J. Hill
Seth J. Hill
also
: a country, state, or territory whose form of government is representative democracy compare direct democracy, pure democracy
Examples of representative democracy in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The left, Vought continued, has the ultimate goal of ending representative democracy altogether.
—Molly Redden, ProPublica, 28 Oct. 2024
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of
Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback
about these examples.
Molly Redden, ProPublica, 28 Oct. 2024
Articles Related to representative democracy
Dictionary Entries Near representative democracy
Cite this Entry
“Representative democracy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/representative%20democracy. Accessed 14 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share