representative democracy
noun
plural representative democracies
: democracy in which the power is exercised by the people through their elected representatives : a form of government in which the people elect representatives to make decisions, policies, laws, etc.
One challenge to representative democracy is that voters must select from a small number of candidates to indicate their wants across many policy areas. Each candidate campaigns on a portfolio of different policies but none of these portfolios necessarily matches what the voter would prefer.—
Seth J. Hill
Seth J. Hill
also
: a country, state, or territory whose form of government is representative democracy compare direct democracy, pure democracy
Examples of representative democracy in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In a representative democracy, nearly one in 10 voters never even saw a real choice.
—Newsweek Editors, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Nov. 2025
Making a change of this size mid-decade, as opposed to once every decade, will be highly disruptive and represent a major tear in the fabric of representative democracy.
—David Patterson Soule, The Conversation, 30 Oct. 2025
The cycle then repeats: fewer voters, less representative democracy, and a further erosion of trust in the institutions which govern us.
—Tom Lopach, Time, 17 Oct. 2025
The Sandinistas, who promised redistributive reforms within a framework of representative democracy, had a rare ability to appeal across a wide ideological spectrum.
—Tim Brinkhof, JSTOR Daily, 8 Oct. 2025
Left unchecked, gerrymandering will seriously damage representative democracy through manipulation of voting power.
—Jan Goldsmith, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Sep. 2025
But no one ever said this representative democracy thing was going to be easy, or endlessly uplifting.
—Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2025
George Washington led troops in the American Revolution and stands for the birth of a representative democracy after rebelling against Britain’s monarchy.
—Lisa Meyers McClintick, USA Today, 21 June 2025
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Newsweek Editors, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Nov. 2025
Making a change of this size mid-decade, as opposed to once every decade, will be highly disruptive and represent a major tear in the fabric of representative democracy.
—David Patterson Soule, The Conversation, 30 Oct. 2025
The cycle then repeats: fewer voters, less representative democracy, and a further erosion of trust in the institutions which govern us.
—Tom Lopach, Time, 17 Oct. 2025
The Sandinistas, who promised redistributive reforms within a framework of representative democracy, had a rare ability to appeal across a wide ideological spectrum.
—Tim Brinkhof, JSTOR Daily, 8 Oct. 2025
Left unchecked, gerrymandering will seriously damage representative democracy through manipulation of voting power.
—Jan Goldsmith, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Sep. 2025
But no one ever said this representative democracy thing was going to be easy, or endlessly uplifting.
—Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2025
George Washington led troops in the American Revolution and stands for the birth of a representative democracy after rebelling against Britain’s monarchy.
—Lisa Meyers McClintick, USA Today, 21 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Representative democracy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/representative%20democracy. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.
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