Editing Representative democracy (section)

==Criticisms==
In his book ''[[Political Parties (book)|Political Parties]]'', written in 1911, [[Robert Michels]] argues that most representative systems deteriorate towards an [[oligarchy]] or [[particracy]]. This is known as the [[iron law of oligarchy]].<ref>Zur Soziologie des Parteiwesens in der modernen Demokratie. Untersuchungen über die oligarchischen Tendenzen des Gruppenlebens (1911, 1925; 1970). Translated as ''Sociologia del partito politico nella democrazia moderna : studi sulle tendenze oligarchiche degli aggregati politici'', from the German original by Dr. Alfredo Polledro, revised and expanded (1912). Translated, from the Italian, by Eden and Cedar Paul as ''Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy'" (Hearst's International Library Co., 1915; Free Press, 1949; Dover Publications, 1959); republished with an introduction by Seymour Martin Lipset (Crowell-Collier, 1962; Transaction Publishers, 1999, {{ISBN|0-7658-0469-7}}); translated in French by S. Jankélévitch, ''Les partis politiques. Essai sur les tendances oligarchiques des démocraties'', Brussels, Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 2009 ({{ISBN|978-2-8004-1443-0}}).</ref>
Representative democracies which are stable have been analysed by [[Adolf Gasser]] and compared to the unstable representative democracies in his book ''Gemeindefreiheit als Rettung Europas'' which was published in 1943 and a second edition in 1947.<ref>Gemeindefreiheit als Rettung Europas. Grundlinien einer ethischen Geschichtsauffassung. Verlag Bücherfreunde, Basel 1947. In 1983 republished under: "Gemeindefreiheit – kommunale Selbstverwaltung" (Adolf Gasser/Franz-Ludwig Knemeyer), in de reeks "Studien zur Soziologie", Nymphenburger, München, 1983.</ref> Adolf Gasser stated the following requirements for a representative democracy in order to remain stable, unaffected by the iron law of oligarchy: 
* Society has to be built up from bottom to top. As a consequence, society is built up by people, who are free and have the power to defend themselves with weapons.
* These free people join or form local communities. These local communities are independent, which includes [[financial independence]], and they are free to determine their own rules.
* Local communities join into a higher unit, e.g. a canton.
* There is no hierarchical [[bureaucracy]].
* There is competition between these local communities, e.g. on services delivered or on taxes.

A drawback to this type of government is that elected officials are not required to fulfill promises made before their election and are able to promote their own self-interests once elected, providing an incohesive system of governance.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sørensen |first1=Eva |title=Enhancing policy innovation by redesigning representative democracy |journal=Policy & Politics |date=25 April 2016 |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=155–170 |id={{ProQuest|1948833814}} |doi=10.1332/030557315X14399997475941 |s2cid=156556922 |url=https://forskning.ruc.dk/da/publications/45ace289-675a-4d49-a03c-fea638fc36cb }}</ref> Legislators are also under scrutiny as the system of majority-won legislators voting for issues for the large group of people fosters inequality among the [[marginalized]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thaa |first1=Winfried |title=Issues and images – new sources of inequality in current representative democracy |journal=Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy |date=3 May 2016 |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=357–375 |doi=10.1080/13698230.2016.1144859 |s2cid=147669709 }}</ref>

Proponents of [[direct democracy]] criticize representative democracy due to its inherent structure. As the fundamental basis of representative democracy is non inclusive system, in which representatives turn into an [[elite class]] that works behind closed doors, as well as the criticizing the elector system as being driven by a [[Capitalism|capitalistic]] and [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]] system.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Razsa |first1=Maple |last2=Kurnik |first2=Andrej |title=The Occupy Movement in Žižek's hometown: Direct democracy and a politics of becoming: The Occupy Movement in Žižek's hometown |journal=American Ethnologist |date=May 2012 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=238–258 |doi=10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01361.x }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Heckert |first1=Jamie |title=Anarchist roots & routes |journal=European Journal of Ecopsychology |volume=1 |year=2010 |pages=19–36 |url=http://ecopsychology-journal.eu/v1/EJE%20v1_Heckert.pdf }}</ref>

The [[V-Dem Institute]] classifies electoral democracies as the bare minimum of democracies, describing them as being governments that are "de-facto accountable to citizens through periodic elections", but are not [[liberal democracies]] and lack further entrenched individual and minority rights beyond the electoral sphere. Basic representative democracies may not possess a fully developed [[rule of law]], legislative and judicial oversight of the executive branch, protections against the "[[tyranny of the majority]]", and only minimal fulfillment of [[Robert Dahl]]'s institutional prerequisites for democracy.<ref name="Lührmann 2018"/>

===Proposed solutions===
The system of [[Sortition|stochocracy]] has been proposed as an improved system compared to the system of representative democracy, where representatives are elected. Stochocracy aims to at least reduce this degradation by having all representatives appointed by [[lottery]] instead of by voting. Therefore, this system is also called lottocracy. The system was proposed by the writer Roger de Sizif in 1998 in his book ''La Stochocratie''. Choosing officeholders by lot was also the standard practice in ancient [[Athenian democracy]]<ref>{{cite book| others = Josiah Ober, Robert Wallace, Paul Cartledge, Cynthia Farrar| title = Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece| edition = 1st| date = 15 October 2008| isbn = 978-0520258099| pages = 17,105| chapter = 1,5}}</ref> and in [[History of India|ancient India]]. The rationale behind this practice was to avoid [[lobbying]] and [[electioneering]] by economic oligarchs.

The system of [[deliberative democracy]] is a mix between a majority-ruled system and a consensus-based system. It allows for representative democracies or direct democracies to coexist with its system of governance, providing an initial advantage.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bohman|first=James|year=1997|title=Deliberative Democracy|url=http://www.sze.hu/~smuk/Nyilvanossag_torvenyek_CEE/Szakirodalom/Deliberat%C3%ADv%20demokrácia/deliberative%20democracy%20book.pdf#page=72|publisher=MIT Press}}</ref>