<P> Due to the short lifespan of the Commune, only one citywide election was held and the structures necessary to facilitate future organized elections on large scales was largely nonexistent . However, the influence of direct democratization in the Paris Commune is not to be understated . </P> <P> In the New England region of the United States, towns in areas such as Vermont decide local affairs through the direct democratic process of the town meeting . This is the oldest form of direct democracy in the United States, and predates the founding of the country by at least a century . </P> <P> Direct democracy was not what the framers of the United States Constitution envisioned for the nation . They saw a danger in tyranny of the majority . As a result, they advocated a representative democracy in the form of a constitutional republic over a direct democracy . For example, James Madison, in Federalist No. 10, advocates a constitutional republic over direct democracy precisely to protect the individual from the will of the majority . He says, </P> <P> Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society . Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination . A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views . The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government . </P>

Who said the best government is a direct democracy where all citizens make laws