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Republic verses Democracy?
Posted at: Apr/27/2009 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Watching America,
I have referenced these terms before so I feel I need to explain myself. We all grew up learning in school that the USA is a Democracy, and this is technically true. It is also true that we are not a “pure” Democracy. In a true or pure Democracy the population has a say or vote in everything, and that is obviously not practical. One version of a Democracy is a Republic. In a Republic authority is derived through the election by the general population of officials who are deemed best suited to represent them. A Republic has 4 key elements, an Executive, a Legislative body, a Judiciary, and inherent individual rights. All 4 elements of a Republic are restricted in activity by a charter which we refer to as our Constitution. Additionally, no one aspect of the Republic is more important than another. This means that even if a majority elected congress passes a law, the individual is still guaranteed their day in court even if a majority of the citizenry appears to demand otherwise. Effectively, we are a “pure” Democracy only one or two days out of each year when we hold open elections. This is not a bad thing, this is merely a practical way to implement Democracy.
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