The term "republic" as used today refers to a representative democracy with an elected head of state, such as a president, serving for a limited term. Even in a republic, it's the voice of the majority that rules through chosen representatives; however, there is a charter or constitution of basic rights that protects the minority from being completely unrepresented or overridden.
This makes it seem like a democracy and a republic are mutually exclusive. They usually aren't; usually a republic is a type of representational democracy with some checks and balances enshrined in the constitution that safeguard the rights of minorities. A "pure" democracy would imply the rule of the majority in every sphere of life, without such safeguards.
The U. Though it is now common for people, including American politicians, to refer to the U. The republic continues to be mentioned in the Pledge of Allegiance, which was written in and later adopted by Congress in as an official pledge although "under God" was added later during the Eisenhower administration. While the founders disagreed regarding the role of the federal government , none sought to build a pure democracy.
Americans directly elect council members, governors, state representatives and senators, and numerous other officials. However, senators were indirectly elected in the past.
Some other officials, such as mayors, may or may not be directly elected. The president is indirectly elected via the electoral college. The legislative and executive branches then appoint a variety of officials to their positions. For example, the president executive branch nominates a justice to the Supreme Court when a seat needs to be filled; the Senate legislative branch must confirm this nomination.
There are several political implications that arise from the U. Laws passed by the majority — through their representatives in government federal or local — can be challenged and overturned if they violate the U. For example, Jim Crow laws mandating racial segregation were deemed unconstitutional and were repealed, and in Brown v. Board of Education , the U. Supreme Court repealed state-sponsored school segregation. In , with Loving v. Virginia , the Supreme Court overturned all remaining anti-miscegenation laws which banned interracial relationships, including marriages.
In the s, however, the court had ruled in favor of states' rights to ban interracial sex, cohabitation, and marriage. This illustrates the power of cultural mores, which influence the interpretation of the constitution. In more recent cases, the healthcare reform bill a. Obamacare was challenged in the U. Supreme Court because it forces individuals to buy health insurance. The law was passed by a majority in Congress , but critics claim that it violates individual liberties by forcing individuals to engage in commerce, a power that the government does not have in this republic.
Ultimately, the Court ruled the individual mandate was constitutional but that states should not be required to expand Medicaid. Another example is California Proposition 8 , a state constitutional amendment in which a majority of voters in California voted to make same-sex marriages illegal. Critics of the law argue that this violates the individual liberties of gay and lesbian couples, and the majority does not have a right to do that in a republic. While courts in California upheld the amendment deeming it constitutional, a federal court overturned it, judging that it was unconstitutional under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Yet another example is Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Citizens United is a conservative organization that sued the Federal Election Commission over its restrictions on campaign financing. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizens United, saying that the restriction of an organization or corporation's right to fund a political campaign is a restriction of that entity's free speech rights under the First Amendment.
If the U. The Supreme Court and, indeed, lower courts too can determine which laws are constitutional and has the power to uphold or overturn laws it judges to be unconstitutional. This demonstrates that the rule of law and the U. Constitution are higher authorities than the will of the majority at any given time. Democracies are older than republics. Pinpointing which place or people had the world's first democracy or republic, however, is difficult.
Many countries, tribes, and cultures had at least some democratic or republican procedures. For example, voting on community matters, electing elders to power, and even creating rules regarding individual rights have occurred on small and sometimes larger scales. Even so, the most well-documented early democracy was found in Athens, Greece , and established around BCE.
This was a pure or direct democracy where the majority had nearly complete control over rights and progress. North Korea's government is set up much like the US, split into three branches: the executive branch, judicial branch and the legislative branch.
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As you were reading through this section, you probably realized that the United States, along with many other countries, fall into more than one democratic category. That's because a democratic country can use more than one type of democracy to run its government.
For instance, a city can use direct democracy to vote in new laws and select state and federal representatives.
Those representatives then participate in representative democracy, where they speak—and vote! And finally, all of these actions—policy decisions, government structure, citizens' rights, and the creation of new laws—are governed by the constitution. That means the United States is a constitutional democracy as well. This is possible because all democracies, regardless of their organizational structure, operate on a shared set of principles.
Let's take a closer look at those now. Beyond just structure, democracies are also characterized by a shared ideology, or system of beliefs. According to Larry Diamond , a professor at Stanford and one of the foremost scholars in democracy studies, democracies have four foundational characteristics. We'll talk about each principle in more depth below. In order to make sure that people's voices are being heard accurately, democracies have to ensure that all voting processes are "free and fair.
In order for an election to be "free and fair," it has to be administered in a way that allows its citizens to vote and treats all political parties and candidates equally. That means the process 1 needs to be accessible to everyone who meets voting qualifications and 2 as unbiased as possible. Furthermore, in order to be as fair, these elections need to occur at a regular interval. If elections are only happening every two decades, that denies people the ability to make their voices heard!
Free and fair elections are important to democracy because the voting process is the way that citizens voice their opinions and, in representative forms of government, choose the people who will represent them in higher levels of government. It also puts an important check on power.
If representatives are coming up for reelection regularly, it puts pressure on them to vote in line with their constituents. Otherwise they could lose their position during the next voting cycle. In order for democracy to function, its citizens have to participate in the process of government.
That means people have to run for office, create ballot initiatives, petition for laws and causes they believe in, and vote. Remember that the term "democracy" means that the power to rule belongs to the people. Only by exercising that power can a nation's citizens ensure that their will is reflected in the country's laws and structures. It's also important that in a democracy, all citizens are given an equal right to participate regardless of where they live, what they do for work, or what culture they come from.
If civic participation is limited to a certain class or race, the system becomes an oligarchy instead. In oligarchies, a small group of unelected people hold all the governing power. When everyone has a chance to participate, it ensures that the government accurately reflects the populace, that minority populations have a voice, and that new laws are fair for everyone. Perhaps most notably, democracies believe in freedom. Citizens should have the right to express their opinions and participate in democracy without fear or intimidation.
Not only do democratic societies believe that creates a better life for its citizens, it also helps keep governmental power in check. If people can freely—but peacefully—express their opinions, it makes it clear when elected representatives aren't listening to the will of the people. Even more importantly, democracies believe in the protection of people's basic human rights. In the United States, these are outlined in the Bill of Rights, and they include the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, protection from the illegal seizure of property, and the right to a trial by jury.
Not familiar with the Bill of Rights? The Bill of Rights Institute breaks it down for you! In other words, democracies guarantee fundamental protections to individual citizens which allows them to live in safety, freedom, and peace.
Finally, the last thing all systems of democracy have in common is the rule of law. According to Dr. Diamond, the rule of law is fundamentally important to democracy because it protects the rights of citizens, maintains order, and limits the power of government.
In other words, if elections are how citizens make their voices heard, then laws are the ways that citizens' desires are enforced. It's pretty clear how laws work in a constitutional or representative form of democracy.
In a constitutional democracy, the constitution itself lays out some fundamental laws, and no other legislation can violate them. In a representational democracy, laws are created by the elected officials in order to make sure that their constituents' concerns are being addressed. But what about a direct democracy where everyone has a voice? Well, even in ancient Athens, the oldest direct democracy, had laws to help govern the city-state. The whole point of The Assembly was to create new policies and laws that the majority of people could agree on, and those policies would govern the entire populace!
Laws, then, are a tool people can use to make sure the ideals of democracy—like freedom and basic human rights—are maintained. Now you know a lot about how democracies function and their core ideals.
Now it's time to look at a republic vs. How are they different? Well, the answer is a little bit complicated. The term "republic" comes from the Greek word politeia, which means the "rights of citizens. To do this, republics use elected officials to represent the will of their citizens within the government. In other words, republics rely on a representational form of government, just like the representational democracies we talked about earlier!
Additionally, in order for a country to qualify as a republic, its head of state has to be an elected official. That means that while countries like France and Germany—which have elected presidents as heads of state—are republics. Countries with a monarch as the head of state, like Canada and the United Kingdom, are not. So to summarize: a republic is a form of government where the power a rests with the people, b is exercised through representative government, and c has an elected head of state.
During this time, Rome had expanded to encompass most of modern-day Europe along with parts of Asia and Africa. That meant that Rome was home to many different cultures, and its citizens spoke 21 different languages! This time period also marked Rome's switch from a monarchy—where a king ruled the nation—to a constitutional government. The Roman Senate, which was comprised of Rome's noble families, decided to institute a new type of government.
The country would now be led by two elected consuls who had equal power and would serve one-year terms. These consuls were elected by legislative assemblies made up of male citizens of Rome. These assemblies also voted on laws developed by the Roman Senate. The Roman Senate was comprised of Patricians, which were members of Rome's noble class. The Senators were appointed by the Roman consuls, and they served as senators for life.
The Senate's job was to draft new laws that would be voted on by the Assembly. Over the next few centuries, the government of Rome would develop a set of guidelines and principles to govern the expanding country, which would coalesce into the Roman Constitution.
The Constitution would remain one of the foundational governing documents of the Roman Empire up until its collapse in the 5th century CE. The countries in blue, orange, yellow, and green are all classified as republics. Remember that a republic is a nation where governmental power rests with its citizens, uses a representational government, and has an elected head of state. These are pretty general criteria, so that means there are quite a few republics today.
In fact, as of , of the world's countries use the word "republic" as part of their official names! Additionally, the loose definition of a republic means there many different types of republics functioning today. We'll briefly discuss the major types of republics here, but you can find more in-depth information about each one by following the links in each description.
In a constitutional republic, the government is limited by laws established by a formal constitution , which is generally secular in nature. Additionally, the government is run by elected officials who are voted on by the population, and those officials are required to follow the rules of government laid out by that country's constitution. For more information about republics based on religion, see the section on "theological republics.
Examples of modern constitutional republics include the countries like India and South Africa. A parliamentary republic uses a parliamentary form of government in which the head of state runs the executive branch of government and the head of parliament runs the legislature.
The legislature itself is comprised of elected officials that are voted into office by the country's citizens. Examples of parliamentary republics include Greece , Hungary , and Malta. A presidential republic allows its citizens to elect a president to serve as the country's head of state. However, in a presidential republic, the president also serves as the head of the government, too! This is different from a monarchy, where the king or queen serves as the head of state while a prime minister or president runs the day-to-day operations of the government.
Examples of presidential republics today include Brazil , Mexico , and Indonesia. Federal republics are countries that are actually a union of states, all of which operate on a republican form of government. In order to qualify as a federal republic, states have to have independence to make their own laws and decisions, as long as those laws don't conflict with policies established for the entire country on the federal level. In this way, states function as a mini-republic, complete with elected officials and an elected head of state, like a governor!
Examples of federal republics include the United States , Germany , and Switzerland. These types of republics are governed primarily by religious law. In this case, religious texts become the backbone of the nation's governing structure and are often drafted into a religious governing constitution. That means that additional laws and policies developed by the government must also be in line with religious law.
Additionally, in order to qualify as a republic, these theocracies must have an elected head of state rather than a monarchy. Examples of modern theocratic republics include Iran , Afghanistan , and Pakistan.
Just like a country can be more than one type of democracy, a country can also be more than one type of republic! For example, Iran has a parliament—making it a parliamentary republic—but it also bases its governing structure on religious law, making it a theocratic republic.
The same is true for a country like Germany, which operates on the principles of both a parliamentary republic and a federal republic. In other words, much like democracies, the types of republics we discussed above are not mutually exclusive.
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