Representative democracy - Advantages and disadvantages table in A Level and IB Government & Politics

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Created by: ellabuckley
Created on: 30-05-16 17:33

Representative democracy

Advantages

People can elect representatives to act on their behalf, as most people don't have the time to be continually involved
Representatives have more experience, knowledge and expertise than the rest of the population
Representatives can educate the public about political issues
They can be made accountable for their decision, whereas the people as a whole can't.

Disadvantages

Representatives may ignore or distort the demands of the people to suit their own political advantage
Representatives may follow their party instead of represents their constituents accurately
May be difficult to make representatives accountable between elections
Representative democracy may result in too much political conflict which can only be resolved by direct democracy

Evaluation

As shown, there are a number of advantages and disadvantages of representative democracy and a mixture between representative and direct will benefit democracy probably more than just focusing on one type of democracy.

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