Representative Democracy

Advantages of representative democracy:

• most people do not have the time to be continually involved in politics, so they can elect representatives to act on their behalf
• Representatives may have more experience, knowledge and expertise 
• Representatives can be made accountable for their decisions, whereas the people cannot
• The demands of the people may be incoherence and contradictory (Representatives can 'aggregate' - concert incoherent demands into coherent political programmes)
• People can react emotionally to issues. Representatives can be more rational
• Representatives can educate the public about political issues
• Different sections of society…