popular democracy
Government by masses
Popular democracy emphasizes direct participation by ordinary citizens rather than governance through elected representatives alone.
The term can be neutral, describing systems with referendums, town halls, or recalls, but it often carries ideological freight—praised by populists as authentic self-rule, criticized by others as mob rule dressed up.
Some authoritarian regimes have claimed the label to suggest legitimacy: the German Democratic Republic called itself a popular democracy.
- peopleHumans as a group
- referendumDirect vote on legislation
- recall electionVote to unseat incumbent
- representativeOne who acts for another
- grassrootsCommon people as political base
community organizing · participation · consensus · electorate · suffrage · voting rights · town hall meetings · general assembly · public square · vote · revolutionary politics · assembly · politics · anti-imperialism · constitutional reform · ballot · labor unions · egalitarianism
popular democracyautocracy
Rule by one
dictatorship · oligarchy · absolute monarchy · aristocracy · tyranny
popular democracyguardianship
Legal care of another
Leninism · republicanism · liberal democracy · representative democracy
popular, democracy, pop, populace, populism, populist, populate, populated, population