American Democracy - Direct and Representative Democracy Direct and Representative Democracy - Direct Democracy - Citizens directly vote on policy initiatives - Representative Democracy - People vote for leaders to represent their interests instead of voting on Every law - The system we have in the United States is an example of representative democracy Representative Democracy - In the U.S we elect members of both houses of congress to represent us - We also indirectly elect aa president through the electoral college The Electoral College - In presidential elections each state is provided with several electoral votes based on Their population - Winner take all – whichever candidate wins most votes in a state win all of that States electoral votes. - The candidate who gets a majority of electoral votes wins the election - A candidate needs 270 out of 538 total votes to win the election - It is possible to lose the popular vote and still win the election - Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881) - Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893) - George W. Bush (2001-2009) - Donald Trump (2017-2020) Why do we have an Electoral College? - The founding fathers did not trust ordinary people to make the right decision - The electoral college is a safeguard against democracy - Small states more relevant