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Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference?
    #8072175 -

Wow.
Talk about rewriting the textbooks.

Suddenly I'm reading about all these
capitalists and republicans wanting America
to now be referred to as a Republic instead
of a Democracy. (And some people mentioned this in the America #1 thread as well...)

Can someone tell me succinctly what the
difference is and why we would actually WANT
to be a Republic over being a Democracy?

I'm still reading up on the topic myself.
:sherlock:


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'Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they're wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It's all in how you carry it. That's what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain and leave the Shroomery.' ~ Jim Morrison

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: blackegg]
    #8072196 -

I've always heard it as that the US is a "Democratic Republic" because we have representatives that are supposed to represent the will of the people... or some shit. I dunno, the concept of government is beyond me.


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:musicnote:Music doesn't stop at the ears when it begins at the heart.:musicnote:


:psychsplit:"Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind."
            -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:psychsplit:

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: blackegg]
    #8072211 -

America has always been and has always been referred to as a Constitutional Republic.


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:redpanda:
If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
:heartpump: :bunnyhug: :yinyang:

:yinyang: :levitate: :earth: :levitate: :yinyang:

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: fireworks_god]
    #8072243 -

Precisely.

We are not a democracy because every person does not cast a direct vote on bills, treaties, or other acts of government. Instead, as a Republic each person elects a representative to take over these functions of government.

Actual democracies are historically rare. Greece is the most commonly used example, but suffrage was very limited there. When America was founded it was thought that a direct democracy would be impossible to establish.

Some people think that with the state of modern technology it would be possible to implement a modern democracy here, with everything being put up for consideration by the individual voters.

I don't think it would work, for various reasons.


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After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action.  If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it.  - Ernest Hemingway

If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it.  In the law courts, in business, in government.  There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent.    -Cormac MacCarthy

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.  - Aeschylus

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: Madtowntripper]
    #8072256 -

I thought we were a Representative Democracy? Wasn't that the whole bit about the 2000 election?


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'Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they're wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It's all in how you carry it. That's what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain and leave the Shroomery.' ~ Jim Morrison

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: blackegg]
    #8072287 -

> I thought we were a Representative Democracy?

The US is a representative democracy, but that is a fairly generic term. It is also a constitutional republic, which is a much tighter definition.


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Just another spore in the wind.

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: Seuss]
    #8072994 -

hmm. interesting.


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'Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they're wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It's all in how you carry it. That's what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain and leave the Shroomery.' ~ Jim Morrison

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: blackegg]
    #8073099 -

"A democracy is two wolves and a small lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Freedom under a constitutional republic is a well armed lamb contesting the vote."
Benjamin Franklin
















A republic, if you can keep it' ... or remember what that means
Star Tribune, September 15, 2005
By Cheri Pierson Yecke

Numerous surveys and polls indicate that students lack knowledge regarding both our history and our form of government.

To address this historical ignorance, U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., inserted a mandate into a bill in 2004 that requires students to be taught about the Constitution on Sept. 17 (or during the preceding week) each year.

While some would question this as imposing a federally mandated curriculum, others welcome it as a long overdue restoration of attention to the Constitution. Over time, semantic sloth and inattention have caused us to use words and concepts too loosely.

For example, although many people refer to this country as a democracy, the word "democracy" appears nowhere in the Constitution.

This is because we are not a democracy, and our founding fathers used strong words to make it clear that we should never become one. Consider the following statements:

* Benjamin Rush: "A simple democracy ... is one of the greatest of evils" (1789).
* James Madison: "Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths" (1787).
* John Adams: "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide" (1814).

The simple fact is that the United States is a constitutional republic, not a democracy. It is inaccurate to use the two terms interchangeably. The source of authority and treatment of minorities are different for these two forms of government. In a democracy, the majority rules, meaning that there are no protections for minority rights. Whatever the majority wants rules the day. A republic, in contrast, is rule by law, and the law can protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority.

In a democracy, people hold the power to rule directly. Examples of democracy in action in this country include initiative and referendum, where the people vote directly on specific issues. Naturally, it would be impractical to try to administer an entire country if the people had to have a direct vote on every issue. According to Madison: "In a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person; in a republic, they assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents" (Federalist 14, 1787).

A republic is where people elect representatives who are responsible to them and who govern according to law. To quote Madison again: "The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens, and greater sphere of country, over which the latter may be extended" (Federalist 10, 1787).

Previous generations clearly understood the difference between these words. When we say the Pledge of Allegiance, we pledge allegiance to a republic, not a democracy. The patriotic song that we sing is "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," not "The Battle Hymn of the Democracy."

After the Constitutional Convention had finished its work in 1787, a woman asked Ben Franklin what kind of government had been decided upon. He replied: "A republic, if you can keep it."

This week is a good time for our children to learn just what he meant.

http://www.americanexperiment.org/publications/2005/20050915yecke.php

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: fireworks_god]
    #8073221 -

fireworks_god said:
America has always been and has always been referred to as a Constitutional Republic.


Constitutionally Limited Republic is how we were taught it when I was a bit younger.


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You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: buckwheat]
    #8073235 -

Buckwheat,
Do you know lonestar2004 by any chance?


--------------------
'Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they're wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It's all in how you carry it. That's what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain and leave the Shroomery.' ~ Jim Morrison

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: buckwheat]
    #8073237 -

:thumbup:

Nice!


--------------------
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: luvdemshrooms]
    #8073248 -

I liked that too, and the idea is not a bad one.


--------------------
After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action.  If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it.  - Ernest Hemingway

If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it.  In the law courts, in business, in government.  There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent.    -Cormac MacCarthy

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.  - Aeschylus

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: blackegg]
    #8073504 -

its funny when some users clearly did not pay attention in U.S. history or U.S. gov't classes lol.


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"Life sucks but in this really beautiful way" - Axl Rose
"Life's a bitch and then you die that's why we get high cuz you never know when you're gonna go." - NAS
"When people don't know what you're about they put you down and shut you out" - Black Sabbath
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" - Gandhi
"Look up at me I am God, look down on me and I am evil, look at me I am you." - Charles Manson.
"Don't question my reality." - Me (as far as I know)

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: SlashOZ]
    #8073552 -

not as funny as people who are ignorant pretending to be otherwise.


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'Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they're wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It's all in how you carry it. That's what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain and leave the Shroomery.' ~ Jim Morrison

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: blackegg]
    #8073693 -

What I'm learning here is that we are a Representative Democracy and also a Constitutional Republic.

The term Representative Democracy mean the same thing as Republic, right?

Quote:
Republic 1. political system with elected representatives: a political system or form of government in which people elect representatives to exercise power for them

From:http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861700632/republic.html



--------------------
'Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they're wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It's all in how you carry it. That's what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain and leave the Shroomery.' ~ Jim Morrison

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: blackegg]
    #8074271 -

There are people who see it either way. Most conservatives will refer to our original constitution as being one that established a "Ciceronian Republic" (look it up)

Progressives tend to argue that the constitution has changed enough that it is no longer that. Who knows who is right, not me.

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: buckwheat]
    #8074396 -

Quote:
This is because we are not a democracy, and our founding fathers used strong words to make it clear that we should never become one.


Yeppers. The same idea underlies the creation of the Senate where senators only have to face the voters every six years (as opposed to every two years in the House). The purpose was to create a kind of 'cooling plate' in the upper chamber to buffer the Senate from being stampeded by hysterical moods which sweep the country every now and then. Rash decisions are usually poor ones.

We are indeed a republic but the whom does our current government represent?


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“The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought.”  -- Rudiger Dornbusch

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Re: Is the US a Republic or a Democracy? What's the difference? [Re: blackegg]
    #8075413 -

Aren't they considered interchangeable nowadays?

I think a Republic uses representatives and a democracy is run by the power. I believe America is considered a democratic republican, since the people pick representatives


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There is no valid reason you should be reading this

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