What is a form of government in which citizens elect their leaders called?

Since it is impossible for everyone to take a hand in running the country, the people elect representatives to act on their behalf, such as the members of the House of Representatives and municipal councils.

Parliamentary democracy

The Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy. This means that elections are periodically held, giving citizens the opportunity to cast their vote for the candidates from the political parties that best represent their views.

Representatives are elected by the Dutch people at various levels:

  • national: the members of the House of Representatives;
  • provincial: the members of the provincial council (who in turn elect the members of the Senate);
  • municipal: the members of the municipal council;
  • other: the general board of the local water authority.

Duties of representatives

Elected representatives have a number of duties:

  • the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives scrutinise the work of the government (ministers and state secretaries);
  • the members of a provincial council set policy in the province;
  • the members of a municipal council set policy in the municipality and scrutinise the work of the municipal executive;
  • the members of the general board of the water authority scrutinise the work of the executive board.

Role of representatives in a democracy

Citizens elect their representatives, choosing people they feel will promote their interests. Representatives must therefore be aware of the social issues of the day. To stay informed of current events, they confer with members of the public and a wide variety of interest groups, for example during working visits. They also answer questions by email and letter.

Citizens’ influence in a democracy

Citizens can also influence local or national politics by taking action themselves, for example by sending emails to members of parliament or town councils. They can also submit petitions or launch citizens' initiatives.

Information on democracy and the rule of law

The government would like to get the public more involved in politics and society. One way of doing this is through the organisation ProDemos, House for Democracy and Rule of Law.

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By André Munro

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What is a form of government in which citizens elect their leaders called?

Jean Bodin

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republic, form of government in which a state is ruled by representatives of the citizen body. Modern republics are founded on the idea that sovereignty rests with the people, though who is included and excluded from the category of the people has varied across history. Because citizens do not govern the state themselves but through representatives, republics may be distinguished from direct democracy, though modern representative democracies are by and large republics. The term republic may also be applied to any form of government in which the head of state is not a hereditary monarch.

Prior to the 17th century, the term was used to designate any state, with the exception of tyrannical regimes. Derived from the Latin expression res publica (“the public thing”), the category of republic could encompass not only democratic states but also oligarchies, aristocracies, and monarchies. In Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576), his canonical study of sovereignty, the French political philosopher Jean Bodin thus offered a far-reaching definition of the republic: “the rightly ordered government of a number of families, and of those things which are their common concern, by a sovereign power.” Tyrannies were excluded from this definition, because their object is not the common good but the private benefit of a single individual.

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During the 17th and 18th centuries, the meaning of republic shifted with the growing resistance to absolutist regimes and their upheaval in a series of wars and revolutions, from the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648) to the American Revolution (1775–83) and the French Revolution (1787–89). Shaped by those events, the term republic came to designate a form of government in which the leader is periodically appointed under a constitution, in contrast to hereditary monarchies.

Despite its democratic implications, the term was claimed in the 20th century by states whose leadership enjoyed more power than most traditional monarchs, including military dictatorships such as the Republic of Chile under Augusto Pinochet and totalitarian regimes such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.