Representative Democracy

In his famous book " Democracy and its Critics " (1989), Robert A. Dahl argues that, historically speaking, there have been two transformations of democracy. These transformations have brought about different models of democratic governance and different interpretations of the concept of democracy. By the fi rst transformation Dahl refers to the the emergence of the classical model of democracy in Greek city-states, most notably in Athens, that took place during the fi fth century BC. The classical Athe-nian democracy was based on citizens' direct participation in decision-making in popular assemblies, and the selection of certain public offi cials by a lot. Until the 19the century, the Athenian model epitomized the way in which the concept of the concept of democracy was interpreted. The second transformation refers to the emergence of modern representative democracy in nation states in the late 18 th and in the 19 th century. The modern interpretation of democracy evolved especially during the 19 th century. The central feature of this conception is the popular election of the representatives who make political decisions. In order to understand why the principle of representation has become such a key element in modern democracy, it is useful to point out two differences between the models of classical and modern democracy. First, the political units are different by their scale. Classical democracy fl ourished in small city-states, whereas modern democracies developed in nation-states with large geographical areas and populations of millions. For this reason, citizens' direct participation in politics would involve enormous practical problems in the modern context. Second, citizenship is defi ned differently in classical and modern democracy. In the Athenian democracy, only a small proportion of adult males were citizens, and large segments of adult population (women, foreigners and slaves) did not have political rights. It has, indeed, been argued that the Athenian citizens were able to spend so much of their time and energy