History shows us that there are two kinds of democracy: direct and indirect democracy.
Direct or pure Democracy
When the people can directly express their will on public matters in a mass assembly rather than through their representatives, it is called direct or pure democracy. It was a participatory democracy. Obviously, direct democracy can exist in States which are small in area and population. It is then physically possible for the people to assemble in a mass meeting to make laws, decide policies, elect public officials and settle other problems of the State. But such a mass^assembly is not possible in large country-States, as exists in modern times. Historically, such a small State
existed in ancient Greece called polis or city-State. In modern times we have some relics of direct democracy in the small cantons of Switzerland, namely, Appenzell, Uri, Glarus and Unterwalden. In these cantons, the whole adult population of few hundreds assemble at one place on Sunday afternoon and decide their common affairs and adopt their policies by voice vote, i.e., by loudly expressing ayes or nays.
Indirect or Representative Democracy
When the will of the people is formulated and expressed through a small body of persons elected by the people as their representatives to make laws and govern the country, it is called an indirect or representative democracy. It is the modem form of democracy and has evolved in Western Europe during the last two centuries or so. Like direct democracy, representative democracy also accepts the sovereignty of the people, which, however, is expressed not directly but indirectly through their delegates or representatives who act as their trustees. It is based not on participation but on representation.
This can be ensured by means of universal franchise, popular electorate, frequent elections, enforceable popular responsibility of the representatives, and the demand that they should reflect the will of the people during their tenure of office. Earlier advocates of a representative democracy demanded even the election of all public officials, whether governors, law-makers or judges, but nowadays only the law-makers are elected. In recent times, this form of democracy has been much criticised and is sought to be reformed by the introduction of some devices of direct democracy such as referendum, initiative and recall. But these methods have not been widely adopted. They exist only in Switzerland.