Why a group taking a vote on something is an example of a direct democracy

A direct democracy is a democracy in which the initiatives come directly from the people. This is opposed to a representative democracy in which delegates are elected to represent the interests of the people (like the United States has Senators and Congressmen for each state).

In a direct democracy a vote by a group of people where the majority would be the winning option all the people would have equally valued input. For example, the 10th grade class of at Sunshine High School was voting on where to have their end of the year field trip. Their options are an amusement park, a camping trip or a beach day. Every 10th grader in the class has one vote for a total of 275 votes all equally weighted. 75 students vote for amusement park, 150 vote to go camping and 50 vote for the beach. The 10th grades take a camping trip as a result of the direct democracy election because the majority ruled.

Although direct democracy is not nearly as popular as representative democracy, there are some real life examples. In Switzerland, many political policies are decided directly by the people such as funding for a school or the building of a new road, the citizens vote and plans are carried out according to the majority. Direct democracy functions in this way in the small towns in the state of Vermont, where people gather in town meetings to vote on relevant issues.