Democracy or Republic, What is the Difference?

Often, in a political argument the phrase, "We live in a democracy!" is used. For those people living in the United States of America this is a grave misconception which it an irritant to many people.

Not only can this deception cause misunderstanding of the way the political system works, it can cause serious misinterpretation of the law.

Let's consider the words of the Pledge of Allegience, something all school schilden used to know. It contains the words, "...and to the Republic, for which it stands". The United States is, and always has been a republic.

A democracy and a republic differ in a major way.

In a democracy the country is ruled by the majority. For the sake of example we can say that the senate, and the house of representatives are a democracy, in that it takes a two thirds majority vote to pass any bill.

However, in a republic the people use the democratic voting process to vote in a person to represent them, either their state, or their district, or whatever. This representative can vote any way he or she wants to, he is not bound to do what the majority of his constituents want him to. During an election, the people are not voting for the president. They are, instead, voting for the representative that will ultimately vote for the president. This is why a candidate can win an election by the popular vote and still not win the election.

The benefit of the republic model of government is simple. Majority rules can get ugly. Large groups of people can be deceived, and fall into mass hysteria based on emotions. In a republic small groups of people can not be discriminated against because they fall into disfavor with a larger, more powerful group.

In a democracy the majority can vote against a minority and win, in a republic it cannot. Consider what could have happened during the 1960s if the United States had been a true democracy. With majority rule, the white majority could have voted slavery back into popular use, had they wanted to, and some of them did. With majority rule, women would not have gotten the vote.,

Laws in a republic are held in place by reason, and thought. They are not arbitrarily produced by the whim of a majority of people. In a democracy the weak are at the mercy of the strong, it is a governmental system of bullying.

Will it always work the way it should? No. There will be times when people slip between the cracks. It is, however it is a good system, and it is a system that has worked well for over two hundred years. The founding fathers of the United States set up a document, called the Constitution which was set into place to give the government the authority to protect the rights of the individual. These rights are the same rights that we are so easily giving away in our modern, enlightened society.

Knowing the difference between a democracy and a republic will help society to understand the political system better, and make decisions based on that knowledge rather than on emotionalism.