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Vocabulary quibble
Jan. 10th, 2010 04:42 amNot all democracies are republics - mine isn't - but all republics are democracies.
A democracy is a state (or sometimes an organization) where people vote either directly for their laws, or for representatives to do the work of lawmaking on their behalf. A republic includes the idea of a representative democracy and adds to it the concept of an elected head of state.
I'm tired of Americans on Facebook polls correcting me with, "America isn't a democracy, it's a republic!" Wrong. It's both.
This rant brought to you by the letter F and the number 4 (as in, four o'clock in the morning.)
EDIT: I suppose it is possible to have a republic that is not a democracy, if you randomly choose representatives. I can't imagine how this would be an improvement over democracy, though, given the probability of choosing people who wouldn't have a clue what they were doing.
A democracy is a state (or sometimes an organization) where people vote either directly for their laws, or for representatives to do the work of lawmaking on their behalf. A republic includes the idea of a representative democracy and adds to it the concept of an elected head of state.
I'm tired of Americans on Facebook polls correcting me with, "America isn't a democracy, it's a republic!" Wrong. It's both.
This rant brought to you by the letter F and the number 4 (as in, four o'clock in the morning.)
EDIT: I suppose it is possible to have a republic that is not a democracy, if you randomly choose representatives. I can't imagine how this would be an improvement over democracy, though, given the probability of choosing people who wouldn't have a clue what they were doing.