Nathaniel McGurk
POLS1100
Essay 1
1. What is the difference between direct democracy and representative democracy? Why did the U.S.
constitutional framers opt for an indirect democracy?
The United States constitution opens with the famous phrase, “We the People”. Those three
words define the basis of our country’s government and philosophy. We rule ourselves through
democracy, rather than have our fates decided by some far off king. Most Americans pride
themselves on our democracy, however our democracy is not pure.
There are two main types of Democracy: direct democracy and indirect, or representative,
democracy. Understanding the difference is a very important part of truly understanding all the
functions of our government. The first type of democracy is the easiest to understand. In a direct
democracy, all the people share equal power within the government. To make this happen, the
people all vote on everything and the majority vote is what wins on any given topic. There are
direct democracies in place now, such as the government of Switzerland. The earliest example
of a direct democracy was in Athens, Greece. While they seem nice on paper, direct
democracies have some pretty major setbacks. They tend to work very well in smaller
communities, but a direct democracy would be extremely difficult to manage in a large country.
Collecting the votes of every last person would be time-consuming and expensive. Another
issue with direct democracy is the tyranny of the majority. The framers of the constitution came
from a tyrannical government, and any form of tyrannical rule was a horrendous thing to them.
This is why the framers opted for a representative democracy instead of a direct democracy.
In a representative democracy, the people still have power, but in a less direct way. Instead of
voting directly on topics, they elect officials, or delegates, to vote for them. The people’s power