Are we a republic or a democracy?

townhall.com ^ | 1/05/05 | Walter E. Williams

[kattracks]

We often hear the claim that our nation is a democracy. That wasn't the vision of the founders. They saw democracy as another form of tyranny. If we've become a democracy, I guarantee you that the founders would be deeply disappointed by our betrayal of their vision. The founders intended, and laid out the ground rules, for our nation to be a republic.

The word democracy appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution -- two most fundamental documents of our nation. Instead of a democracy, the Constitution's Article IV, Section 4, guarantees "to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government." Moreover, let's ask ourselves: Does our pledge of allegiance to the flag say to "the democracy for which it stands," or does it say to "the republic for which it stands"? Or do we sing "The Battle Hymn of the Democracy" or "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"?

So what's the difference between republican and democratic forms of government? John Adams captured the essence of the difference when he said, "You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe." Nothing in our Constitution suggests that government is a grantor of rights. Instead, government is a protector of rights.

In recognition that it's Congress that poses the greatest threat to our liberties, the framers used negative phrases against Congress throughout the Constitution such as: shall not abridge, infringe, deny, disparage, and shall not be violated, nor be denied. In a republican form of government, there is rule of law. All citizens, including government officials, are accountable to the same laws. Government power is limited and decentralized through a system of checks and balances. Government intervenes in civil society to protect its citizens against force and fraud but does not intervene in the cases of peaceable, voluntary exchange.

Contrast the framers' vision of a republic with that of a democracy. In a democracy, the majority rules either directly or through its elected representatives. As in a monarchy, the law is whatever the government determines it to be. Laws do not represent reason. They represent power. The restraint is upon the individual instead of government. Unlike that envisioned under a republican form of government, rights are seen as privileges and permissions that are granted by government and can be rescinded by government.

How about a few quotations demonstrating the disdain our founders held for democracy? James Madison, Federalist Paper No. 10: In a pure democracy, "there is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual." At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Edmund Randolph said, " ... that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy." John Adams said, "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." Chief Justice John Marshall observed, "Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos." In a word or two, the founders knew that a democracy would lead to the same kind of tyranny the colonies suffered under King George III.

The framers gave us a Constitution that is replete with undemocratic mechanisms. One that has come in for recent criticism and calls for its elimination is the Electoral College. In their wisdom, the framers gave us the Electoral College so that in presidential elections large, heavily populated states couldn't democratically run roughshod over small, sparsely populated states.

Here's my question. Do Americans share the republican values laid out by our founders, and is it simply a matter of our being unschooled about the differences between a republic and a democracy? Or is it a matter of preference and we now want the kind of tyranny feared by the founders where Congress can do anything it can muster a majority vote to do? I fear it's the latter.

[ovrtaxt]

The question has nothing to do with philosophy and documents. It's about the state of things today as they're practiced.

As a matter of fact, we have some parts of the governemnt that act as a republic, some parts that act as a democracy, and some parts that act as a judicial oligarchy.

[Rightly Biased]

Walter Williams hit it solid.

I wish civics wasn't an optional class and If only we could teach it.

[tacticalogic]

FDR and the 17th Amendment really got us on the path to democracy.

A Communitarian Ethos

The Groton influence of Endicott Peabody showed in a speech Roosevelt gave at the People's Forum in Troy, NY in 1912. There he declared that western Europeans and Americans had achieved victory in the struggle for "the liberty of the individual," and that the new agenda should be a "struggle for the liberty of the community." The wrong ethos for a new age was, "every man does as he sees fit, even with a due regard to law and order." The new order should be, "march on with civilization in a way satisfactory to the well-being of the great majority of us."

In that speech Roosevelt outlined the philosophical base of what would eventually become the New Deal. He also forecast the rhetorical mode by which "community" could loom over individual liberty. "If we call the method regulation, people hold up their hands in horror and say ‘un-American,' or ‘dangerous,'" Roosevelt pointed out. "But if we call the same identical process co-operation, these same old fogeys will cry out ‘well done'.... cooperation is as good a word for the new theory as any other."

[Redleg Duke]

No, we are a representative republic!

[Redleg Duke]

Troll, read your history! We are a Representative Republic.

The Communist countries call themselves "Democratic Peoples Republics, but there haven't been any meaningful democratic activities to speak of in any of them.

If it quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck and looks like a duck, you can call it a rose, but it still shits through feathers!

[TheForceOfOne]

I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

Republic

for which it stands, one Nation under

God

,indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

"I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the people by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a Republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principls of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

http://www.usflag.org/american.creed.html

[buffyt]

We are a Constitutional Republic.

[BlackbirdSST]

We're a democratic-republic.

No, we're a Constitutional Republic. Anything else is just a cheap Socialist imitation. Blackbird.

[rambo316]

You are absolutely correct when you say that. It is a shame when guys like Rush, Mark Levin and Hannity keep referring to America as a democracy.

[american spirit]

And a republic is four wolves and a sheep voting on dinner.......only the sheep has a gun.

[rambo316]

American Spririt,

That was a good one....

[johnmilken]

I 'think' it was a joke.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

Got it. I read it that you were likening our governmental form to that of N. Korea, because they called it a Dem. Republic. Big no-no. Ours isn't perfect but it is the most free one on the planet. Based on your past posts you have traveled extensively and see different forms of govt. I am sure you have seen some wonderful comparisons and contrasts.

[coder2]

What irks me is what our kids are being taught in school about this !!

My daughter has been arguing that we are a REPUBLIC with her CIVICS teacher in junior high. He says we are a democracy!!!

When she asks me why he continues to say this, I tell her that just because he is a teacher, it doesn't necessary mean he is smart...

I've brought up my kids to question everything and not just blindly believe what they hear.. She argues global warming with this same teacher too

He gets very frustrated, but he can't do anything about it 'cuz she is armed with facts... He tried though and tells her to read some bogus bs stuff --- HA HA She's a straight A honor student and he doesn't dare punish her for her ideas

She's learning a valuable lesson here --- how to research ideas/opinions and take a stand for what you believe in.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

see post #53

[ZULU]

"If we've become a democracy, I guarantee you that the founders would be deeply disappointed by our betrayal of their vision."

We have. And they are - I GUARANTEE it.

[jonestown]

Gunslingr3 wrote:

The first Republican president is responsible for destroying the bulwark of our Republic - State sovereignty and the 10th amendment.

We were left with a consolidated democracy.

---

Our State governments are no more 'sovereign' than the federal.

As the 10th notes, some powers are prohibited to the States. [primarily, -- they cannot infringe upon individual rights]

All sovereignty is retained by the people. We delegate some powers to governments to wield on our behalf, but our rights remain inalienable & sovereign.

[american spirit]

I agree 100% with your assertion and in fact we're far worse off due to the fact that we live in this stautory twilight zone where our we're constantly bombarded with codes, rules, regulations, etc. from city, county, state and fedgov entities. I've heard there are over 60 million codes, reg's, etc. on the books across the country which brings new meaning to the adage that "ignorance of the law is no excuse".

It should be obvious by now that the vast majority of these codes, etc. are designed to exert ever more control over our lives by faceless gov't. entities and/or to extrtact even more $ from us through taxes, permits, fees, etc. In either case I'm quite sure none of this was ever envisioned by our founding fathers.

[jonestown]

Well put..


Communitarian's believe the new order should be:
--- "march on with civilization in a way satisfactory to the well-being of the great majority of us."

Whereas:
-- 'every man does as he sees fit, with a due regard to law and order', -- is clearly our republican principle.

[Don Simmons]

C O N S T I T U T I O N A L

R E P U B L I C

Period.

We have been since -- oh my goodness -- the CONSTITUTION was ratified by an act of Congress approved February 18, 1791!!!

Before that, we were a Confederacy. The Articles of Confederation were agreed to by the United States in Congress, assembled on November 15, 1777, and were ratified March 1, 1781.

Yeah...OK - this has happened and that has happened...we've been bastardized and blah blah blah. Now, we may very well be a system of tribal chieftains if you listen to some folks' "eclectic" ideas of what/who we are.

Bottom line: Constitutional Republic.