Question

Which political system provides the best example of a representative democracy?

A. A country’s citizens are given the right to vote on every one of the country’s laws.
B. A military leader rules over a country with the absolute authority to do whatever he wants.
C. A country’s citizens elect leaders to create and enforce laws for the entire country.
D. A king implements political reforms that limit his own power based on Enlightenment ideals.

Answer 1

C. A country’s citizens elect leaders to create and enforce laws for the entire country.

Step-by-step explanation:

When we analyze the word "democracy" we can see that it is formed by two Greek words: demo, which means "people", and kratia, which means "government". So, it's a kind of government where ordinary people have the authority to elect the members who would lead the country. During History, this political idea suffered several changes, and split into two types of democracy:

• The Direct Democracy, where people decide form themselves the laws;
• The Representative Democracy, where people elects a leader to promote, develope and mantain the laws.

According to the political scientist Larry Diamond, in order to exist a democracy is necessary four elements:

1. A rotary system, which means, a political system that elections can occur in a period of time;
2. The participation of the citizens;
3. The protection of human righs;
4. Equal laws.

Answer 2

The correct answer is C.

In a democracy, the power resides on its citizens who have the right to participate in political decisions. The form of participation in a representative democracy, is through political representatives that people who meet legal voting requirements are entitled to elect through suffrage. Those representatives will be in charge of making decisions and decide about the country's laws.

Elections are celebrated periodically so that new leaders can be chosen after a certain period of time, and people can either reward or punish previous leaders through this system, either re-electing or removing them.