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

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

But the flat line in women’s congressional representation between this year and next is a reminder that gender disparities in our representative democracy remain a problem in need of targeted, intentional, and sustained solutions. —Kelly Dittmar, Forbes, 24 Nov. 2024

Still, Hartmann said there is need for foundations across ideologies to support connecting people with one another and to the civic institutions that can create a more stable, representative democracy. —Alex Daniels, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Mar. 2024

And within the government’s attempt to build a more representative democracy is a push to win the political support of traditionally remote populations, some of which have been affected by ongoing ethnic conflict and social tensions. —Keith Rabin, Foreign Affairs, 1 Oct. 2015

But their effects on political discourse, representative democracy, and constitutional government have been, on the whole, malign. —Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2024

The left, Vought continued, has the ultimate goal of ending representative democracy altogether. —Molly Redden, ProPublica, 28 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1788, in the meaning defined above