I don't think that distinction is necessary here, Ladas, as the poll refers to "representative democracy," not "Democracy" (i.e. not direct democracy).

By thinks X is best, does that mean best for the country or his/her personal preference/etc?

As you've asked the question, in a Representitive Democracy, a representitive is obligated to cast his vote with his constituents.

However, we don't have a Representitive Democracy in America. We have a representitive Republic. In a Representitive Republic, you vote for the person who you think will best represent you, but what they vote for is what they feel will be best.

Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of elected individuals representing the people, as opposed to either autocracy or direct democracy.

The representatives form an independent ruling body (for an election period) charged with the responsibility of acting in the people's interest, but not as their proxy representatives; that is, not necessarily always according to their wishes, but with enough authority to exercise swift and resolute initiative in the face of changing circumstances. It is often contrasted with direct democracy, where representatives are absent or are limited in power as proxy representatives.

The term republic may have many different meanings. Today, it often simply means a state with an elected or otherwise non-monarchical head of state....It may also have a meaning similar to liberal democracy. For example, "the United States relies on representative democracy, but its system of government is much more complex than that. It is not a simple representative democracy, but a constitutional republic in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law".

A distinct set of definitions for the word republic evolved in the United States. In common parlance a republic is a state that does not practice direct democracy but rather has a government indirectly controlled by the people. In the rest of the world this is known as representative democracy. This understanding of the term was originally developed by James Madison, and notably employed in Federalist Paper No. 10. This meaning was widely adopted early in the history of the United States, including in Noah Webster's dictionary of 1828. It was a novel meaning to the term, representative democracy was not an idea mentioned by Machiavelli and did not exist in the classical republics.

Rynar has the right of it.

Thus, my vote for vote like the constituents.

The people elect them to vote as the representative best believes, thats why character and personal belief matter and a person who votes as popular opinion shifts is not seen as a good rep.

Do we have any other types here?

Dismissing this argument as semantic is to argue disingenuously, as we are discussing two entirely different ideas and philosophies for forms of government. It is akin to dismissing the difference between a right turn and a left turn when giving directions as semantic because, after all, they are both turns.

se·man·tics
   /sɪˈmæntɪks/ Show Spelled[si-man-tiks] Show IPA
–noun(used with a singular verb)
1.
Linguistics.
a.
the study of meaning.
b.
the study of linguistic development by classifying and examining changes in meaning and form.
2.
Also called significs. the branch of semiotics dealing with the relations between signs and what they denote.
3.
the meaning, or an interpretation of the meaning, of a word, sign, sentence, etc.: Let's not argue about semantics.
4.
general semantics.

Dismissing anything as semantics is just the modern way of pussying out of the conversation.



None of those indicate triviality. Indeed, the meaning of things is incredibly important. Hand-waving arguments away as "that's just semantics" is an utter failure to be willing to have reasonable discourse.