Democracy is a type of governance within society that refers to a balance of forces between citizens and the representatives they elect to give them power to legislate and execute those policies that concern them or seem to them to be a priority.

Although the concept of democracy is one and unambiguous, there are different varieties and types of State organization, whose differences are marked especially by the exceptionality of each society, such as religion, territorial character or the present ethnicity of different communities. Next we will see what the different types of democracy are .

What is democracy?

The terminology of democracy dates back to the beginning of the fifth century in ancient Greece. More specifically, it is in Athens where it gave rise to the birth of this political system , although with very important limitations. “Demos” refers to “people” and “cracia” comes from the etymology “kratos”, which refers to “power” or “government”.

In general terms, democracy is a set of fundamental requirements that make up a variety of civil rights that differ from other political systems. Some of these are suffrage (right to vote), freedom of expression and freedom of political action (to be in power).

The 6 Types of Democracy

Over the centuries since its inception, democracy has been transformed and adapted to the increasingly heterogeneous times of modern societies.

In this article we will review the 6 main types of democracy most common of our times.

1. Direct Democracy

It is the most desired and still longed-for type of democracy in overpopulated countries since direct democracy is usually implemented in spaces with few inhabitants , since this is a system of direct participation, as its name indicates, without intermediaries or representatives. Normally the debates and decisions are instrumented through the assembly system.

2. Liberal

Liberal democracy is common within the Western world, whose system is defined by the election of rulers by vote (suffrage), those representatives where they are subject to a rule of law, laws and Constitution that have emanated from the people as equals.

In this type of democracy citizens enjoy rights and freedoms, both individual and collective, democratic pluralism, political, social and religious tolerance. The alternation in power is another fundamental requirement of this model . In addition, there is a system of control over the rulers that monitors the quality of the mandate.

3. Christian Democrat

The Christian Democrat democracy was very extended in some European countries in the 20th century , in countries like Germany, Ireland or Italy. It consists of governing the laws of public life with the commandments and values of the Christian religion, including Catholics and Protestants.

In this sense, Christian Democratic ideology tends to turn to the right, to more conservative legislation and to a liberalisation of the economy.

4. Indirect or representative

Indirect democracy or also known as representative democracy, is the most implemented at present . Here citizens elect different political profiles (presidents, delegates, mayors, senators, deputies) to represent them in public life and political decisions.

5. Partial

Partial democracy refers to political systems where the powers of the people are well limited in the political sphere and activities (decision-making power). They meet the basic requirements of any democracy such as elections, freedom of expression and plurality of parties, but the citizens do not enjoy real access to the State administrations .

On the other hand, this type of democracy tends to be personalist and the party in power has mechanisms to strengthen or increase its executive and legislative capacity above the parliament and the constitution of the country in question.

6. Popular

It is perhaps the most controversial type of democracy and of complex naturalness. Popular governments are said to be those that have broken their ties with imperialism , colonialism or have achieved their independence through popular resistance (armed in some cases) to the invader.

These systems are of a socialist and progressive nature , and the government party holds hegemony, nationalizes companies and opposes Globalization. They were devised by the former Soviet Union, and were implemented in the countries of its influence, called satellite states.

This is a case where democratic elections have indeed taken place. But these have been preceded by events such as a coup d’état, after which the dominant force seeks to legitimize its power through free elections.

In many cases they emerge with overwhelming popular support that, over time, diminishes as the regime perpetuates itself in power for long periods, failing to deliver on its initial promise to return power to the masses.