Direct vs Representative

Kody Crider

HH215

Blog 2

Direct vs Representative

Democracy if a form of government where the citizens have the ability to have freedom, equality, and have a say in the way they are governed. The two types of democracy I will be comparing is representative democracy, which America has today, and direct democracy, which is what the Athenians had hundreds of year ago. It is my opinion that representative democracy is the fairer and better way to ensure the government is run correctly and the voice of the people is heard.

In a direct democracy, the people have direct say and influence over the decisions of laws. While this seems like a good idea, this could lead to controversy and a weak government because people from the city, town, state, etc. could form a majority to influence what they want to be passed or not passed. In a representative, we have elected party officials that express the voices of the people in their party. A small group of people represent those who elected them and they are more willing to go along with the ideologies of the party.

Using an example from our reacting to the past assignment, direct democracy allowed for the denial of slaves and metics to be able to vote. This vote was most likely determined due simply to the opinions the voters had of these slaves and metics as scum and thieves. The slaves and metics really had no chance of having the right to vote. Although it was passed initially, it was shortly reversed because of these reasons. If there was a representative democracy, the slaves and metics would have most likely had a better chance of the decision going in their favor and remaining that way. They would have had elected officials arguing for their case and the vote would have been taken by elected and educated representatives, not by a random group of citizens.

An example from today’s society is simply the type of government we have. We have a different version of democracy then what the Athenians had. We elect everyone who is selected to run for office, whether it be the president, congressmen or woman, cabinet members, senators, etc. Our government is ran by people we trust to express our voices and people we have elected to run our country with the best interest in mind. It is my opinion that representative democracy is the fairest and most efficient way to have the people’s voices heard while also maintaining a fair and efficient government.