Types of Democracy

The constitution created a representative democracy: a government in which the people entrust elected officials to represent their concerns.

Three Forms of Representative Democracies

Participatory Democracy

• Depends on the direct participation of most of the people in a society

• The citizens vote directly for laws that affect them rather than electing representatives that reflect their interests

• Too difficult to manage for larger countries - also depended too heavily on the active participation of citizens

• Self-representation is still seen at the local and state level of the United States government, such as regarding issues such as property tax and the construction of buildings, just not the country as a whole.

• Specific examples:

  • state and local ballot initiatives, which is a system of the popular vote

  • referendum: allows citizens to contest the work of the legislature

Pluralist Democracy

• people with widely varying interests find others who share their interests and organize into interest groups: nongovernmental groups exert influence on political decision making

• allowing many different people to have a voice, barring the wealthy from controlling all the power.

• the U.S. government was designed to limit the influence of such groups, and systems such as Congress prevent one single interest from completely dominating

• Specific examples:

  • interest groups such as NAACP, NRA< NOW, and AFL-CIO

Elite Democracy

• elected representatives make decisions and act as trustees for the people who elected them

• wealthy people with influence tend to dominate, however, they are considered to be well-educated and prepared to represent their people

• Many examples of this in the U.S. government, the most notable being the Electoral College, as well as the appointment of Supreme Court judges and Cabinet Officials.

Tensions

Federalists

• proponents of a strong federal government, conceived of the initial draft, and the full ratification of the Constitution

• Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers: a series of 85 essays written to convince wary citizens to support the Constitution and its ratification.

Anti-Federalists

• opponents of the Constitution and the strong federal government uniting the states

• notable leaders such as Robert Yates and William Lansing

• 16 essays against the Constitution were written by an Anti-Federalist under the pen name of Brutus.

Government Power and Individual Rights

Federalist Paper No. 10

• One of the most famous/most cited Federalist papers

• James Madison explained in this paper that the government was designed to limit factions: interest groups, to ensure that a few powerful people would not dominate.

Detailed View of Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists

• Power allocation

  • Federalists: strong national government

  • Anti-Federalists: more power to the states

• protection of states and individuals

  • Federalists: believed the existing constitution was sufficient

  • Anti-Federalists: believed a bill of rights needed to be added to ensure the rights were protected

• representatives vs. people in government

  • Federalists: wanted elected representatives that were qualified to vote on laws and lead the nation

  • Anti-Federalists: believed that the citizens should directly influence the government so that the elite would not dominate.