<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> Representative democracy (also indirect democracy, representative republic or psephocracy) is a type of democracy founded on the principle of elected officials representing a group of people, as opposed to direct democracy . Nearly all modern Western - style democracies are types of representative democracies; for example, the United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, Ireland is a unitary parliamentary republic, and the United States is a federal republic . </P> <P> It is an element of both the parliamentary and the presidential systems of government and is typically used in a lower chamber such as the House of Commons (United Kingdom), Lok Sabha (India) or Dáil Éireann (Republic of Ireland), and may be curtailed by constitutional constraints such as an upper chamber . It has been described by some political theorists including Robert A. Dahl, Gregory Houston and Ian Liebenberg as polyarchy . In it the power is in the hands of the representatives who are elected by the people . </P>

In what way is the united states a representative democracy