Clear your desk of everything but your #2 pencil. You will have exactly 15 minutes to take this test which will be 100% of your grade this semester. There will be no talking, looking at your neighbor’s paper.
Question #1.
Is the United States of America a Democracy or a Republic?
You may begin.
Hint: Can you still recite the Pledge of Allegiance?
If your answer is “Republic”
You are correct and you pass the test.
However, if you answered “Democracy”….
you must read on.
Even if you answered correctly, you might find this interesting.
Article IV section 4 of the Constitution
“guarantees to every State in this union
a Republican Form of Government.”
What is a Democracy then?
The origin of the work democracy comes from the Greek demos, meaning people, and kratos, meaning government by or of the people.
In a democracy, the majority rules either directly, or through elected officials, without the restraint embodied in a fixed body of law. The law is whatever an offical organ of government determines it is. It is rule by whim rather than law, by emotion rather than reason.
Democracy concentrates power into the hands of the few organized and clever enough to manipulate the masses. It is characterized by a communistic attitude toward property and monopolistic enterprises. Government thus becomes an instrument for the redistribution of wealth as well as the security of the state. It is the rule of men, the dictatorship of the majority without regard to the consequences upon individuals or society.
What is a Republic?
The word republic is from the Latin res, which means thing, affair or interest, and publica which means of everybody. It literally means everybody’s thing or interest.
The essence of a republic is the rule of law, by which is meant the common or scientific law which is certain and unchangeable. In a repubic, the government has just enough power to carry out its proper functions, but is otherwise limited, inhibited and restricted. Power is decentralized, divided and regulated by an elaborate system of checks and balances, with the ultimate check held by the people in the form of free and open elections (the ballot box), trial by jury (the jury box), and an armed citizenry (the cartridge box). The law is neutral. No one is exempt; everyone is equal before it. All are held fully accountable to an injured party.
James Madison, father of the Constitution, wrote in THE FEDERALIST No.10:
“In a pure democracy, there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such 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.”
Even Plato warned, in his REPUBLIC, that, as a rule, tyranny arises from democracy.
For these reasons, the founders of our Republic avoided a government of men and established a government law.
Now that you are informed — Please go vote !
Note: A large portion of the content in this blog is excerpted from the brochure, “Democracy or Republic, Which is it? By Benedict D. LaRosa. You can read the entire brochure by clicking here.
Special thanks to Drummer Boy for continually keeping our family aware of such things.