Delegative democracy was gradually eroded in favor of more representational forms of governance.

Delegative democracy - a form of democratic control whereby voting power is vested in self-selected delegates, rather than elected representatives.

The Industrial Workers of the World labor union uses multiple levels of democracy, including delegative democracy.

Legislative Powers, Veto Players, and the Emergence of Delegative Democracy.

Guillermo O'Donnell: Delegative Democracy.

The internal policies of the Paris Commune are seen as the real-world precursor to the more formalized notions of modern delegative democracy.

Pirate Party in Germany, Italy, Austria, Norway and France use delegative democracy with the open source software LiquidFeedback.

The prototypical delegative democracy has been summarized by Bryan Ford in his paper, Delegative Democracy, as containing the following principles:

Most important among his theoretical contributions to political science is his work on the 'bureaucratic-authoritarian state' and on theories of democracy and the characteristics of the process of democratic transition, through the development of concepts such as "horizontal accountability", "micro democracy" and "delegative democracy".

An illiberal democracy, also called a pseudo democracy, partial democracy, low intensity democracy, empty democracy, hybrid regime or delegative democracy, is a governing system in which, although elections take place, citizens are cut off from knowledge about the activities of those who exercise real power because of the lack of civil liberties.

Delegative democracy can be called a "voluntary direct democracy" in that you can be included in decisions (and are usually expected to be, by default) however you can "opt out" by way of abstaining or delegating your voting to someone else if you lack the time and/or interest to vote on the delegated matter.