direct democracy pros and cons

Clearly, democracy is the most generally acknowledged and widespread parliamentary system of government practiced in the world. Democracy is a mode of government in which people of a nation have a say in the formulation of the country’s legislation, policies, and the conducting of elections in which they nominate their members to various political positions. Direct and democratic democracies have the largest levels of experience globally among the various types of government practiced today. The differences between direct and representative democracy are important. Direct democracy is a kind of democracy in which people have the right to engage in policy decisions that affect their lives. This form of democracy is an opening to the spirit and gist of the idea of freedom.
According to Ralf-Uwe and Daniel (n.p), the participation of citizens in democracy is highly appreciated leading to a superb government that governs a country. On the other hand, representative democracy is a type of democracy where citizens elect political leaders to represent them in law-making procedures within a country. Ralf-Uwe and Daniel (n.p) further assert that the governing body formed as a result of representatives chosen by the people tend to give the representatives an opportunity to executive the role of implementing policies and programs to run the government effectively. Representative form of democracy is currently practiced in most parts of the world including United Kingdom, United States, India, among others with insignificant variations. Notably, most countries would prefer direct democracy to representative form of democracy since direct participation in law making procedures and policies tend to govern a country at the heart of the citizens which turns out as the most formidable idea. According to the green papers, there are changes to the list of candidates for the California general election for different Congress political post and parties to which they are elected (Richard e. Berg-Anderson n.p). There are some pros and cons of direct democracy vis-a-vies representative democracy. In consideration to the California general election, some of the pros of direct democracy are;

Total transparency.

Direct democracy offers complete transparency among people and their governing body, occupy theory (Occupy theory n.p). This form of democracy tries to avoid the rivalry between other types of government like the representative form where citizens seem to be blocked from the government by the representatives. The progress of a society is pegged mostly on the individuals living there as opposed to the government. The debate between government and citizens meet directly thereby creating total transparency leading to increased trust thus food governance.

Raise the level of cooperation of society.

Allowing citizens to have their thought is the sole aim of direct democracy (Ralf-Uwe Beck and Daniel Schily 2011). Unrest and disobedience among societies to the governing body get reduced with direct democracy as opposed to the representative democracy where citizens might feel the need to create unrest due to exploitation by the government. People get to have voices and participate in policies to improve the status of the society in which they live in instead of hasting it down.

Improve government accountability.

Greater government accountability enhanced through direct participation of the citizen form the direct democracy (Bardes et al. n.p). Limited or no mistake made when citizens directly submit their complaints to the government since the government hears first-hand information from citizens. Intermediaries as in representative democracy get eliminated with direct democracy. No middlemen or agent means first-hand information to the government from citizens.

Arguably, just like any other form of democracy, direct democracy has demerits. Some of the cons of direct democracy are:

Lack of public involvement.

Direct democracy looks great on paper, but getting the citizens on board to clarify an issue it gets hard (US politics n.p). In most cases, various elements of discussion wander during execution. When people don’t come on board, or willing to and share their prejudices, it seems to be a time wasting for the government.

Decision making is hard.

In the Direct democracy, it is hard to reach a decision (Conservapedia n.p). Allowing every individual to give a voice makes it difficult to arrive at a consensus. Additionally, deciding on which voice to hear first and the importance of the voice is not easy to make. This decision making is enhanced with the representative democracy where each agent can be allowed to have his/her voice on the board.

Increased tension.

It is nearly impossible to bring the community together and make the decision or making laws and policies as described in direct democracy. Agreeing on the important issue in the society is not possible. One side of the community may dominate the decision making thereby creating tension.

Conclusion

In retrospect, democracy is indeed a great form of government. The option that matters in relation to democracy is the indirect control that citizen have over their own rights and privileges and democracy efficiently teaches them how do this. Democracy, either direct or indirect, may not be the best option at the moment but it is the best form of government existing in the currently political times. Nevertheless, every form of government tend to have its shortcomings in as much as there are advantages associated with democracy. Therefore, it is worth mentioning that democracy mainly focus at striking a balance between allowing and governing the citizens towards making decision that best suits them. Henceforth, it is only through democracy that any government can find such a balance.

Works cited

Alex Padilla. California Secretary Office. (2016) from; http://www.sos.ca.gov/ California.

Secretary/state-offices. Accessed 3 July 2017.

Bardes, Shelley, and Schmidt. American government and politics today. Cengage

Learning. Cengage http://www.cengage.com/assets/downloads/pdf/prod/p-bardes- learningoutcomesmap.pdf, 2013.

Conservapedia. United state senate…Modified 27 June 2016. From

http://www.conservapedia.com/United_States_Senate. Accessed 3 July 2017.

Occupy theory. List of pros and cons of direct democracy. Modified 13 February 2015

From https://occupytheory.org/list-of-pros-and-cons-of-direct-democracy/. Accessed 3 July 2017

Richard e. Berg-Anderson; The Green Papers. Off year election USA 2017. Updated Mon 3 July

4, 2017. From; http://www.thegreenpapers.com/sig/CA.html. Accessed 3 July 2017

Ralf-Uwe Beck & Daniel Schily. Direct democracy in California. From https:// Ralf-Uwe

Beck Daniel Schily direct democracy.com. 2011.

US politics. Netivist. Modified 2017, from https://netivist.org/politics-us-politics/categories/all/

Accessed 3 July 2017