Choose which you think is the best type of democracy.
Absolute democracy - an extreme form of a collective perception of order, based by the need of the human mind to control its surroundings and conduct a predictive view of perceiving the collective world. It is similar to Direct democracy .
Anticipatory democracy - a theory of civics relying on democratic decision making that takes into account predictions of future events that have some credibility with the electorate.
Authoritarian democracy/Organic democracy - a form of democracy directed by a ruling elite of an authoritarian state that seeks to represent the different interests of society. Authoritarian democracy was promoted by fascists who presented fascism as a form of authoritarian democracy, it explicitly rejects the conventional concept of democracy as in a majoritarian democracy that assumes equality of citizens.
Bioregional democracy - a political, cultural, and ecological system or set of views based on naturally defined areas called bioregions, similar to ecoregions. Bioregions are defined through physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics. Bioregionalism stresses that the determination of a bioregion is also a cultural phenomenon, and emphasizes local populations, knowledge, and solutions.
Capitalist democracy/Market democracy - a political, economic, and social system and ideology based on a tripartite arrangement of a market-based economy based predominantly on a democratic polity, economic incentives through free markets, fiscal responsibility and a liberal moral-cultural system which encourages pluralism.This economic system supports a capitalist free market economy subject to control by a democratic political system that is supported by the majority.
Cellular democracy - a type of democracy based on multi-level bottom-up structure based on either small neighborhood governmental districts or contractual communities
Christian democracy - a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. In practice, Christian democracy is often considered conservative on cultural, social and moral issues (social conservatism) and advocates a social market economy in the economic field (crossing over with social democratic economics but based on the family).
Consensus democracy - is the application of consensus decision-making to the process of legislation in a democracy. It is characterized by a decision-making structure which involves and takes into account as broad a range of opinions as possible, as opposed to systems where minority opinions can potentially be ignored by vote-winning majorities.
Consensus democracy also features increased citizen participation both in determining the political agenda and in the decision-making process itself. Some who have pointed to developments in information and communication technology as potential facilitators of such systems.
Defensive democracy - the philosophy that members of a democratic society believe it necessary to limit some rights and freedoms, in order to protect the institutions of the democracy.
Delegate democracy/Liquid democracy - a form of democratic control whereby voting power is vested in delegates, rather than representatives. This term is a generic description of either already existing or proposed popular control apparatuses.
Deliberative democracy/Discursive democracy - a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision making. It adopts elements of both consensus decision-making and majority rule. Deliberative democracy differs from traditional democratic theory in that authentic deliberation, not mere voting, is the primary source of legitimacy for the law.
Deliberative democracy is compatible with both representative democracy and direct democracy. Some practitioners and theorists use the term to encompass representative bodies whose members authentically deliberate on legislation without unequal distributions of power, while others use the term exclusively to refer to decision-making directly by lay citizens, as in direct democracy.
Demarchy/Lottocracy - a form of government in which the state is governed by randomly selected decision makers who have been selected by sortition (lot) from a broadly inclusive pool of eligible citizens. These groups, sometimes termed "policy juries", "citizens' juries", or "consensus conferences", deliberately make decisions about public policies in much the same way that juries decide criminal cases.
Democratic centralism - the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party. The democratic aspect of this organizational method describes the freedom of members of the political party to discuss and debate matters of policy and direction, but once the decision of the party is made by majority vote, all members are expected to uphold that decision. This latter aspect represents the centralism. As Lenin described it, democratic centralism consisted of "freedom of discussion, unity of action."
Democratic dictatorship/People's democratic dictatorship - is that the Communist Party of China and state represent and act on behalf of the people, but possess and may use dictatorial powers against reactionary forces. Implicit in the concept of the people's democratic dictatorship is the notion that dictatorial means are a necessary counterforce to recidivist social elements, and that without such a dictatorship, the government may collapse into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie or other degenerate social form, faulting on the socialist state charter which is its first principle.
Democratic republic - a country that is both a republic and a democracy. It is one where ultimate authority and power is derived from the citizens. However, in practice countries that describe themselves as democratic republics do not always hold free or fair elections.
Democratic transhumanism - the ideology "stems from the assertion that human beings will generally be happier when they take rational control of the natural and social forces that control their lives." It refers to the stance of transhumanists (advocates for the development and use of human enhancement technologies) who espouse liberal, social and/or radical democratic political views.The ethical foundation of democratic transhumanism rests upon rule utilitarianism and non-anthropocentric personhood theory
Dictatorship of the proletariat - refers to a socialist state in which the proletariat, or the working class, has control of political power. The use of the term "dictatorship" does not refer to the Classical Roman concept of the dictatura (the governance of a state by a small group with no democratic process), but instead to the Marxist concept of dictatorship (that an entire societal class holds political and economic control, within a democratic system).
Direct democracy - a form of democracy in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Depending on the particular system in use, it might entail passing executive decisions, making laws, directly electing or dismissing officials and conducting trials. Two leading forms of direct democracy are participatory democracy and deliberative democracy.
E-democracy/Electronic democracy/eDemocracy - "the use of information and communications technologies and strategies by 'democratic sectors' within the political processes of local communities, states/regions, nations and on the global stage." Democratic actors and sectors in this context include, in order of importance, citizens/voters, political organizations, the media, elected officials, and governments. E-democracy, like democracy in its ideal form, is a direct democracy. In practical form it has been an instantiation of more limited forms of democracy.
Economic democracy - a socioeconomic philosophy that proposes to shift decision-making power from corporate shareholders to a larger group of public stakeholders that includes workers, customers, suppliers, neighbors and the broader public. No single definition or approach encompasses economic democracy, but most proponents claim that modern property relations externalize costs, subordinate the general well-being to private profit, and deny the polity a democratic voice in economic policy decisions. In addition to these moral concerns, economic democracy makes practical claims, such as that it can compensate for capitalism's claimedly inherent effective demand gap.
Emergent democracy - refers to the rise of political structures and behaviors without central planning and by the action of many individual participants, especially when mediated by the Internet. More recently, emergent democracy has been referred to as "the power of organizing without organizations." The term was coined to stand in contrast to more traditional forms of democracy, such as representational democracy and direct democracy. The phrase draws upon emergence theory for the idea that the simple actions of individuals can collectively create complex and unpredictable results, as when the behavior of termites results in large, efficient nests beyond the comprehension of any individual participant.
Empowered democracy - an alternative form of social-democratic arrangements theorized in response to the repressiveness and rigidity of contemporary liberal democratic society, the theory of empowered democracy envisions a more open and more plastic set of social institutions through which individuals and groups can interact, propose change, and effectively empower themselves to transform social, economic, and political structures. The key strategy is to combine freedom of commerce and governance at the local level with the ability of political parties at the central level to promote radical social experiments that would bring about decisive change in social and political institutions.
Formal democracy - a state system that has in place superficial forms of democracy but is not actually managed democratically. The former Soviet Union has been retroactively characterized in this fashion since its constitution was essentially democratic, while the state was managed by the bureaucratic élite known as the Politburo.
The lack of actual choice in the political marketplace of the United States, with almost all electoral options controlled by a duopoly (Democrats and Republicans) serving primarily the ruling capitalist elites, with such state of affairs reinforced ideologically by a complicit media, and a style of governance heavily reliant on public relations techniques, has made American democracy a leading example of a formal, eviscerated democracy in the 21st century.
Grassroots democracy - a tendency towards designing political processes where as much decision-making authority as practical is shifted to the organization's lowest geographic level of organization: principle of subsidiarity.
To cite a specific hypothetical example, a national grassroots organization would place as much decision-making power as possible in the hands of a local chapter instead of the head office. The principle is that for democratic power to be best exercised it must be vested in a local community instead of isolated, atomized individuals, essentially making it the opposite of national supremacy.
Guided democracy/Managed democracy - a term for a democratic government with increased autocracy. Governments are legitimated by elections that are free and fair but emptied of substantive meaning in their ability to change the State's policies, motives, and goals.
In other words, the government has learned to control elections so that the people can exercise all their rights without truly changing public policy. While they follow basic democratic principles, there can be major deviations towards authoritarianism. Under managed democracy, the electorate is prevented from having a significant impact on policies adopted by the State's continuous use of propaganda techniques.
Illiberal democracy/Pseudo democracy/Partial democracy/Empty democracy/Low intensity democracy/Hybrid regime - a governing system in which, although elections take place, citizens are cut off from knowledge about the activities of those who exercise real power because of the lack of civil liberties. It is not an 'open society'. There are many countries "that are categorized as neither "free" nor "not free," but as "probably free," falling somewhere between democratic and nondemocratic regimes".
Indirect democracy/Representative democracy - a variety of democracy founded on the principle of elected people representing a group of people, as opposed to direct democracy.For example, three countries which use representative democracy are the United States Of America (a presidential republic), the United Kingdom (a constitutional monarchy) and Poland (a parliamentary republic).
Interactive democracy - advocates the use of information technology to develop current democratic systems of government in order to give the electorate greater involvement. It is in part a development of the ePetition systems that are operating at various levels of government and may be categorised as a subset of E-democracy.
Interest group democracy - was an attempt by the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt to create broad support for the New Deal by giving major interest groups at least part of what they wanted. In addition to aiding bankers, farmers, corporations, and the unemployed, Congress enacted legislation to helping homeowners, stock investors, and the railroads.
Intra-Party Democracy â democratic process within a single-party state government. This debated among scholars if the Chinese Communist Party resemble this process during leadership transitions.
Islamic democracy - a political ideology that seeks to apply Islamic principles to public policy, a democratic state which recognizes Islam as its state religion with some religious values are incorporated into public life, but Islam is not the only source of law.
Jacksonian democracy - promotes the strength of the presidency and executive branch at the expense of Congress, while also seeking to broaden the public's participation in government. They demanded elected (not appointed) judges and rewrote many state constitutions to reflect the new values. In national terms the Jacksonians favored geographical expansion, justifying it in terms of Manifest Destiny. Jackson's equal political policy became known as "Jacksonian Democracy", subsequent to ending what he termed a "monopoly" of government by elites.
Jeffersonian democracy - The Jeffersonians believed in democracy and equality of political opportunity, with a priority for the "yeoman farmer" and the "plain folk". They were antagonistic to the aristocratic elitism of merchants and manufacturers, distrusted factory workers, and were on the watch for supporters of the dreaded British system of government. Above all, the Jeffersonians were devoted to the principles of Republicanism, especially civic duty and opposition to privilege, aristocracy and corruption.
Liberal democracy/Constitutional democracy - a form of government in which representative democracy operates under the principles of liberalism. It is characterized by fair, free, and competitive elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into different branches of government, the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society, and the protection of human rights and civil liberties for all persons. To define the system in practice, liberal democracies often draw upon a constitution, either formally written or uncodified, to delineate the powers of government and enshrine the social contract. After a period of sustained expansion throughout the 20th century, liberal democracy became the predominant political system in the world.
Majoritarian democracy - a democracy based upon majority rule of a society's citizens. Majoritarian democracy is the conventional form of democracy used as a political system in many countries.
Though common, majoritarian democracy is not universally accepted - majoritarian democracy was famously criticized as having the inherent danger of becoming a "tyranny of the majority" whereby the majority in society could oppress or exclude minority groups. In contrast to majoritarian democracy and the perceived danger of a tyranny of the majority, consensual democracy was developed in response that emphasizes rule by as many people as possible to make government inclusive, with a majority of support from society merely being a minimal threshold. Fascism rejects majoritarian democracy for its assumes equality of citizens and claims that fascism is a form of authoritarian democracy that represents the views of a dynamic organized minority of a nation rather than the disorganized majority
New Democracy/New Democratic Revolution - a concept based on Mao Zedong's "Bloc of Four Social Classes" theory during post-revolutionary China which argues that democracy in China will take a decisively distinct path from either the liberal capitalist and/or parliamentary democratic systems in the western world, or Soviet-style communism in Eastern Europe and similar states.
The New Democracy concept still aims to overthrow feudalism and/or achieve a country's national independence from colonialism, but it bypasses the rule of the capitalist class that Marx and Lenin predicted would usually follow such a struggle, claiming instead to seek to enter directly into socialism through a coalition of classes fighting the old ruling order. The coalition is subsumed under the leadership and guidance of the working class and its communist party, working with the communists irrespective of their competing ideologies, in order to achieve the more immediate goal of a "new democratic order" that the Chinese communists of course hoped would then lead to full-blown socialism and communism, in spite of the competing class interests of the social classes of the "bloc".
Nonpartisan democracy/No-party democracy - a system of representative government or organization such that universal and periodic elections take place without reference to political parties.
Non-representative democracy - a form of indirect democracy in which the people elect "electors" or "delegates" instead of representatives. Representatives are office holders who perform a legislative, executive, or judicial function. By contrast, electors or delegates function as electors of representatives (or office holders).
Ochlocracy ("rule of the general populace") - is democracy ("rule of the people") spoiled by demagoguery, "tyranny of the majority" and the rule of passion over reason, just like oligarchy ("rule of a few") is aristocracy ("rule of the best") spoiled by corruption, and tyranny is monarchy spoiled by lack of virtue. Ochlocracy is synonymous in meaning and usage to the modern, informal term "Mobocracy" mob rule, which emerged from a much more recent colloquial etymology.
Open Democratic â system where the public decides how they should be governed and having power to continuously improving the system.
Participatory democracy - a process emphasizing the broad participation of constituents in the direction and operation of political systems. Etymological roots of democracy imply that the people are in power and thus that all democracies are participatory. However, participatory democracy tends to advocate more involved forms of citizen participation than traditional representative democracy.
Pluralist democracy - a political system where there is more than one center of power. Democracies are by definition pluralist as democracies allow freedom of association. However, pluralism may exist without democracy.
Popular democracy - a notion of direct democracy based on referendums and other devices of empowerment and concretization of popular will. The concept evolved out of the political philosophy of Populism, as a fully democratic version of this popular empowerment ideology, but since it has become independent of it, and some even discuss if they are antagonistic or unrelated now.
Procedural democracy - a democracy in which the people or citizens of the state have less influence than in traditional liberal democracies. This type of democracy is characterized by voters choosing to elect representatives in free elections.
Procedural democracy assumes that the electoral process is at the core of the authority placed in elected officials and ensures that all procedures of elections are duly complied with (or at least appear so). It could be described as a republic (i.e., people voting for representatives) wherein only the basic structures and institutions are in place. Commonly, the previously elected representatives use electoral procedures to maintain themselves in power against the common wish of the people (to some varying extent), thus thwarting the establishment of a full-fledged democracy.
Procedural democracy is quite different from substantive democracy, which is manifested by equal participation of all groups in society in the political process.
Radical democracy - an ideology was articulated by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe who claim that liberal democracy and deliberative democracy, in their attempts to build consensus, oppress differing opinions, races, classes, genders, and worldviews. In the world, in a country, and in a social movement there are many (a plurality of) differences which resist consensus. Radical democracy is not only accepting of difference, dissent and antagonisms, but is dependent on it. Laclau and Mouffe argue based on the assumption that there are oppressive power relations that exist in society and that those oppressive relations should be made visible, re-negotiated and altered. By building democracy around difference and dissent, oppressive relations of power that exist in society are able to come to the forefront so that they can be challenged.
Religious democracy - a form of government where the values of a particular religion have an effect on the laws and rules, often when most of the population is a member of the religion. Religious democracy is an example of how democratic values can exist in a different cultural elaboration than what is usually known before.
Sectarian democracies - multiethnic/multifactional countries where the ethnic group with the greatest power has a democratic government that does not allow minorities to participate in the democratic process of that nation.There are several countries that highlight this sort of government.The opposite of sectarian democracy is consociationalistic democracy.
Under apartheid, South Africa was a sectarian democracy which some called a "white only democracy".White South Africans enjoyed the right to vote and to participate in the political process whereas the Black South Africans were oppressed.
Sovereign democracy - a Kremlin coinage that conveys two messages: first, that Russia's regime is democratic and, second, that this claim must be accepted without demanding any proof, period. Any attempt at verification will be regarded as unfriendly and as meddling in Russia's domestic affairs.
Sovereign Democracy in Russia was realised in the form of a dominant-party system which was put into place in 2007 when as a result of the Russian legislative election of 2007 the political party United Russia, headed by president Vladimir Putin, without forming a government, formally became the leading and guiding force in Russian society not unlike the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Social democracy - a political ideology that considers itself to be a form of reformist democratic socialism. It advocates for a peaceful, evolutionary transition of society from capitalism to socialism. It asserts that the only acceptable constitutional form of government is representative democracy under the rule of law. It promotes extending democratic decision-making beyond political democracy to include economic democracy to guarantee employees and other economic stakeholders sufficient rights of co-determination. Common social democratic policies include advocacy of universal social rights to attain universally-accessible public services such as: education, health care, workers' compensation, and other services including child care and care for the elderly. Social democracy is connected with the trade union labour movement and supports collective bargaining rights for workers
Socialist democracy - a variant of socialism that rejects centralized, elitist, or authoritarian means of transitioning from capitalism to socialism but rather calls for the immediate creation of decentralized economic democracy from the grassroots level.
Democratic socialists endorse a post-capitalist, socialist economic system as an alternative to capitalism. Some democratic socialists advocate market socialism based on workplace self-management, while others support a non-market system based on decentralized-participatory planning. Many contemporary democratic socialists reject centralized planning as a basis for democratic socialism.
Sociocracy - a system of governance, using consent-based decision making among equivalent individuals and an organizational structure based on cybernetic principles
Soviet democracy/Council democracy - is a form of democracy in which workers' councils called "soviets" (Russian for "council"), consisting of worker-elected delegates, form organs of power possessing both legislative and executive power. The soviets begin at the local level and onto a national parliament-like assembly.
Totalitarian democracy - system of government in which lawfully elected representatives maintain the integrity of a nation state whose citizens, while granted the right to vote, have little or no participation in the decision-making process of the government.
Workplace democracy - is the application of democracy in all its forms (including voting systems, debates, democratic structuring, due process, adversarial process, systems of appeal) to the workplace.
It usually involves or requires more use of lateral methods such as arbitration when workplace disputes arise.
