The Group

Democracy is literally defined as rule by the people. In order for a government to be considered democratic, its decisions must reflect the "true interests" of the people.

Democracy is a word used to describe three political systems that have been used in modern society. These governments, although with different methods, did try to insure democracy. They are democratic centralism, direct democracy, and representative democracy.

Democratic centralism is a democracy system where the true interests of the masses were met without citizen input. When you truly research democratic centralism, you wonder why anyone would consider it remotely democratic. However, many authoritarian regimes have used democratic centralism to claim that they government was democratic. Take for example the now deceased Soviet Union. The presidents of the Soviet Union claimed that they found the interests of the public masses by round table discussion and that they did not require citizen input. Many the blame the fall of the Soviet Union due to democratic centralism because, by excluding citizens, they did not find the interests of the masses. However, problems have arisen from including a surplus of mass influence as well. This is called direct democracy.

Direct democracy is a type of government system where the people have complete control over how their concerns are met. The people vote for everything concern or interests they have, without being disrupted by a higher authority. Although this type of democracy worked very well in ancient Greece and New England, it has its drawbacks. The main drawback was ignorance. In order to receive the benefits of direct democracy, your public must be well educated and not be easily influenced by fleeting emotions. If your public is that way, then direct democracy will be a slow and painful system. This is the reason why the United States is a representative democracy.

A representative democracy is a type of democracy which the people depend on two competing officials to meet their concerns. This type of democracy is considered democratic in most countries, especially the United States. This type of democracy eliminates the impracticality of direct representation, but is not as authoritative as centralism. In this democracy, the people have their needs met by voting for the right individuals to represent them. Although some may argue that this system of government is elitist,