direct democracy

[di-rekt-di-mah-kruh-see, dahy-rekt]

noun

1. government with direct rule by the people, without the involvement of elected representatives.

Example Sentences

Madison especially thought pure direct democracy would prove unstable, a too-slight skiff heaved about in history’s seas.

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There can be issues with direct democracy, as Sean Morales-Doyle of the Brennan Center for Justice pointed out.

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The battle between direct democracy and representative government isn’t new, and it hasn’t always been the domain of just Republicans.

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“This is very much connected to the rise of authoritarianism that we’ve seen across the country,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a nonprofit that tracks and supports ballot measures across the 26 states and the District of Columbia that allow some form of direct democracy.

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Direct democracy in the United States took root during the Progressive Era of the late 1800s and early 1900s, especially in the West and Midwest, where newer states had less entrenched political structures and were more open to reform.

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