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Representative Democracy is a form of government founded on the principles of Popular Sovereignty by the people's representatives. The representatives form an independent ruling body (for an election period) charged with the responsibility of acting in the people's interest, but ''not'' as their proxy representatives—i.e., not necessarily always according to their wishes, but with enough Authority to exercise swift and resolute initiative in the face of changing circumstances. It is often contrasted with Direct Democracy , where representatives are absent or are limited in power as proxy representatives. The representatives are chosen by the majority of the voters (as opposed to the majority of the population/eligible voters) in Election s. While existing representative democracies hold such elections to choose representatives, in theory other methods, such as Sortition (more closely aligned with direct democracy), could be used instead. Also, representatives sometimes hold the power to select other representatives, presidents, or other officers of government (indirect representation). A representative democracy that also protects Liberties is called a Liberal Democracy . One that does not is an Illiberal Democracy . There is no necessity that individual liberties are respected in a representative democracy. For example, the Communist State s were technically representative democracies who regularly held elections, but did not respect real liberties. Today, in liberal democracies, representatives are usually elected in free, secret-ballot, Multi-party elections. The power of representatives in a liberal democracy is usually curtailed by a Constitution (as in a Constitutional Republic or a Constitutional Monarchy ) or other measures to balance representative power:
The term Republic may have many different meanings. Today, it often simply means a state with an elected Head Of State , such as the Islamic Republic Of Iran or the former German Democratic Republic . It may also have a meaning similar to liberal democracy. For example, "the United States relies on representative democracy, but system of government is much more complex than that. [It is not a simple representative democracy, but a Constitutional Republic in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law.(Scheb, John M. An Introduction to the American Legal System. Thomson Delmar Learning 2001. p. 6) LITERATURE
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