C181 Ch. 2

Define 'Direct Democracy'. Give some examples.

Direct Democracy is when all members of a group meet to make political decisions. Versus elected officials meeting to make decisions on behalf of the group. An example would be a classical Greek City-State. The adult citizens met to make important decisions of government. A modern example would be Americans voting for their governor.

Define and describe 'Indirect Democracy" or Representative Democracy.

Indirect democracy is when individuals vote for elected officials to make the decisions of government. For example, America has an Indirect Democracy. We elect officials who elect the president.

Define Majoritarian democracy (Majoritarianism) and describe its basic concepts.

Majoritarian Democracy is the classic theory that government by the people is interpreted by government by the majority of the people. It relies of our intuition on what is fair. Based on the individual person. Is a form of direct democracy.

Define Pluralist democracy (Pluralism) and describe its basic concepts.

Pluralist democracy interprets government by the people. Meaning government by people operating through competing interest groups. According to this model the interest groups have to operating separate from the government. This changes from responsiveness of the mass public opinion which we see with Majoritarian democracy, to responsiveness to an organized group of citizens.

Explain how Elite Theory differs from the Majoritarian and Pluralist models.

The elite theory relies on the idea that a small number of individuals make the decisions of the government. This is very different from Majoritarian and Pluralist models, because they rely on the the majority not the minority.