Saturday, April 02, 2011

What so many don't know

Difference between Democracy and Republic, in brief:

Democracy:
a:
government by the people; especially :rule of the majority.

b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.

Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether it be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences

Republic
a: a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president : a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government.

b: a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.

Democracy and Republic are often taken as one of the same thing, but there is a fundamental difference. Whilst in both cases the government is elected by the people, in Democracy the majority rules according to their whims, whilst in the Republic the Government rule according to law. This law is framed in the Constitution to limit the power of Government and ensuring some rights and protection to Minorities and individuals.

I have often been accused of being 'undemocratic'


Damned right!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

None of this matters. Power rests with those that have the guns and that's not you and me. The US shows that a constitution can be walked over any time the govt likes. The US is a pretty tense place about now so maybe the people will arise and make the states free again.