A direct democracy works well only for a very small group. In this form of government, everyone gathers together to agree about all the laws and decisions. For a country to operate this way would be terribly impractical, because people would spend all their time in decision-making.

In a representative democracy, such as we have in the United States, representatives are chosen to make the laws and decisions for the rest of the people. People vote by electing officials they trust to make choices and decisions for them.