Can anybody tell me why I pledge allegience to "the Republic, for which she stands"? All I hear is that we live in a democracy. And that we are making the world safe for democracy. And that we are trying to bring democracy to Iraq, et. al. Is a democracy better than a Republic? If so, why do I not pledge allegience to the "democracy"?

 

Didn't we thrash this out pretty good in a recent thread by the same or similar name?
Dono

 

What are aluding to? Bush is a democrat or is trying to install a demacratic party in Iraqi? Hey wait a minute...they ARE getting federal and housing and urban development (HUD)...Wow Bush is a democrat!

 

In a true democracy everyone would vote on every issue that comes up. Majority rules. There would be no congress. You would go to the polls and vote on every trade bill, treaty, and domestic policy issue that comes up. 51% would be enough to carry an issue. Since we don't do that in the US then that is not the form of gov't we have.

In a republic, representatives are elected to make those decisions for the population.

Over time the meaning of the two words has been corrupted so they are now interchangeable.

 

No, not quite!

The primary definition of a republic is "a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president". This is a direct quote from Merriam Webster. This is the most traditional definition of republic and the reason many other non-democratic countries are able to call themselves republics (e.g. China, North Korea)

Democracy is defined by Websters as "government by the people; especially : rule of the majority" and "a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections". Our political system follows this second paradigm. It is often called a representative democracy.

A pure democracy is defined as "democracy in which the power is exercised directly by the people rather than through representatives ". That is, everybody votes on every step the government takes. This is also called town hall democracy.

As you can see republic and democracy are not interchangable. We are a republic and we are a democracy. China is a republic but not a Democracy. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a republic but not a democracy. Saudi Arabia is neither.

A democracy is always a republic. But a republic is not always a democracy.

Are we clear now?


Whistler

 

So are we a Democratic Republic?

 

republican democracy ?

 

Thanks whistler - I understand a lot better now