Rethinking “Representative” Democracy

The rapidly changing dynamism of the 21st century has left democratic institutions in shambles as populists rise to power and, arguably, threaten to undermine the very fabric of the democratic way of life through increasingly exclusionary politics. The popularity of populist leaders and the reemergence of ethno-nationalism demonstrates a shortcoming of many representative democracies, their elites’ ability to adequately represent the masses. In this paper, I will argue that recent trends in the decline of democracy can be partially attributed to a lack of democratic legitimacy that has been caused by a failure to intentionally account for demographic diversity in the elites-masses compromise that underpins representative democracies. Furthermore, I will argue that the majoritarian notion of representation is not sufficient to represent the demographic composition of multicultural democracies and suggest a mixed regime that provides for greater descriptive representation of minorities in national politics.