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A representative democracy may involve more powers than a constitutional monarchy or participatory democracy would allocate to the legislators, so almost all constitutions provide for an independent judiciary and other measures to balance representative power:
A European medieval tradition of selecting representatives from the various estatesIn France under the ancien regime, the Estates of the realm were the three divisions of the Estates-General. The First Estate was the clergy, the Second was nobility, the Third was the commoners. In theory, all commoners were part of the Third Estate. (effectively, classesA social class is, at its most basic, a group of people that have similar social status. The relative importance and definition of membership in a particular class differs greatly over time and between societies, particularly in societies having a legal d, but not as we know them today) to advise/control monarchs led to relatively wide familiarity with representative systems. Edmund BurkeEdmund Burke ( January 12, 1729— July 9, 1797) was an Irish philosopher, Whig politician and statesman, remembered principally for his criticism of the French Revolution and his discussion of "the sublime. He was a founder of the Annual Register and is re in his speech to the electors of BristolThis article is about the English city of Bristol. For other uses please see Bristol (disambiguation). Bristol is a city in south-western England, on the River Avon. It borders on the Unitary Districts of Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and S classically analysed their operation in Britain and the rights and duties of an elected representative.
Representative democracy came into particular general favour in post- industrial revolution nation stateThis article refers to a state in which a single nation is dominant. There is also an article on the Internet game NationStates. See also State (disambiguation). The term nation state (or nation-state , while often used interchangeably with the terms units where large numbers of subjects or (latterly) citizens evinced interest in politics, but where technology and population figures remained unsuited to direct democracy.
The United Kingdom exemplifies a representative democracy; Germany has been one since 1949. The United States and Canada are two more well-known examples.
Globally, in 2003, a majority of the world's people live in representative democracies including constitutional monarchy with strong representative branch - the first time in history that this has been true. It has been the most successful form of civics since absolute monarchy. In general, absolute monarchy has become constitutional due to the rise of the power and skill of representatives, sometimes involving political revolutions - but in almost all cases, the representatives come first, and the revolutions have come after.
Normally each representative is elected by, and responsible to, a particular subset of the total electorate: this is called his or her constituency.