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Representative democracy is fundamentally defined as representation of individual citizens segmented into constituencies. The party system however, has become so prevalent and powerful that elected officials are now representative of the party platform rather than constituent concerns. This obvious situation is clearly not democracy.
The all-pervasiveness of party politics also means that the original intent of the House of Representatives which was to serve as a governing and legislative body is more often that not merely a conduit for confrontation and negativity. The goal of many party members is simply to besmirch the governing body and the President's office such that their party position appears more favorable and increases the power base and the chance of winning elections in the future.
Finally, representative democracy was a concept invented hundreds of years ago and has ultimately lost the ability to deal in an efficient and timely manner in regard to most of the issues of the modern world that have become much more complex. Even under freer circumstances for choice and direction and with the right-minded members, no single individual representative can propose intelligent and appropriate direction on every issue thus further making the case that representative democracy is non-existent. Even with ideal members, they still only have a limited range of knowledge and cannot therefore represent the entirety of the their constituency on every issue.
Good governance and fiduciary duty to constituents has to come back to the forefront as the primary role of any elected representative. Increased access points for the general population and specific expertise must be increased such that intelligence is brought to the table, common and differing opinions are debated openly and fairly and most importantly that non-agenda driven conclusions are arrived at.
Hence a "new way" is required to replace representative democracy.
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