Direct democracy is a form of democracy in which the public is directly involved in making decisions, as opposed to representative democracy where the public chooses representatives to make decisions on their behalf. In direct democracy, citizens themselves act as decision-makers rather than delegating these powers. Direct democracy can take different forms, including:

• Assembly of citizens: Direct democracies may operate through an assembly of citizens, where citizens gather to discuss and vote on issues.
• Referenda and initiatives: Direct democracies may also operate by means of referenda and initiatives in which citizens vote on issues instead of for candidates or parties.
• Direct election of representatives: The term "direct democracy" is sometimes used for the practice of electing representatives in a direct vote rather than indirectly through an electing body.
• Recall of elected officeholders: The term "direct democracy" is also used for the recall of elected officeholders.

Direct democracy may be understood as a full-scale system of political institutions, but in modern times it most often consists of specific decision-making institutions within a broader system of representative democracy. Two leading forms of direct democracy are participatory democracy and deliberative democracy.

Direct democracy has advantages and risks. Advantages include enabling people to vote on important issues that may be excluded from or cut across representative party politics, and the decision of the popular majority can be expressed beyond representative processes that are potentially distorted and elitist. However, mechanisms of direct democracy may become tools of majoritarian populism, by which leaders are able to bypass and weaken representative processes by appealing directly to the people. They raise questions of voter competence and governability, and run the risk of polarizing political opinions.

Direct democracy is not widely used today, and most modern liberal democracies are a mixture of direct and representative democracies. The pure form of direct democracy exists only in the Swiss cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus, while the Swiss Confederation is a semi-direct democracy (representative democracy with strong instruments of direct democracy) .