Importance of Direct – Indirect Democracy

Popularized as one of the most developed and abundant forms of government on the planet, the democracy is a way of understanding policy in which power remains in the hands of the people. Thus, it is important to understand what are the characteristics of this type of government and what levels of action people can have depending on the type of democracy that exists.

Brief approach to democracy, the government of the people

Democracy is a form of government that arises in Ancient Greece, in the V century BC. C., in the city of Athens. It was the result of a long process of politicization of the society that it did not happen from one day to the next and that it supposed the passage through various types of government previously. In Greek, the word 'demos' means people while 'kratos' means government; Thus, democracy would be nothing other than the government of the people.

The development and consolidation of the government of the people was possible in Athens and not in another Greek polis due to the high level of commitment and

responsibility that the Athenians had regarding their political reality. They considered themselves 'political men', which is why it was not understandable that citizens did not take part in this task. We must say, however, that the Athenian democracy differed in several elements from the current democracy since it left out women, slaves and foreigners.

Types of democracy: direct

In Athens, the way in which this new form of government was applied led to its being called direct democracy. This was so since all the citizens who participated in the political decisions debated and They exchanged ideas together in the agora of the city, that open space similar today to that of a square.

This category of being a direct form of government meant that there were no intermediaries or representatives: all citizens took part in the decisions.

Indirect democracy and its problems

Currently, most of the world's democracies move with indirect forms of government. This means that citizens elect representatives who, for a period of time, must dedicate themselves to solve problems or take action on behalf of all while the town in general goes about their business daily.

The enormous number of people that exist today in democratic countries would make the real existence of direct democracies impossible; however, the fact that there are intermediaries (legislators, officials, etc.) often means that control of what is done or decided and so it is common to find populations that soon show discomfort with the elected candidates.

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