We are excited to welcome you to the first of three installments of our Learning Journey on liberal, republican democracy from Ballotpedia and the Center for Free, Fair, and Accountable Democracy (CFFAD).
When discussing the U.S. system of government, many people use the words “democracy,” “republic,” “republican,” and “liberal” in confusing ways. Clarity of definitions is essential for understanding the U.S. form of government. This short Learning Journey will help you sort things out.
In Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address during the civil war in 1863, he referred to “… government of the people, by the people, for the people …” Lincoln’s phrase captured the spirit of democracy, but there is more to it than that.
Today, we’ll get our feet wet by exploring three key concepts: direct democracy, representative democracy, and republics.
Let's get started!
Direct Democracy
One definition of democracy is majority rule by the people without using elected representatives. We define that as direct democracy. In a direct democracy, everyone is entitled to propose policy options and vote on those proposals.
Opponents of direct democracy cite concerns over the power of any majority of people. They argue that unconstrained majority rule could create problems for those in any minority. The founders of the United States shared this concern. Alexander Hamilton said:
“It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.”
There are no countries governed by direct democracy today. The closest example of direct democracy is Switzerland, which has some limited aspects of direct democracy. During the Colonial Period, some town hall meetings in New England operated under rules similar to direct democracy.
U.S. citizens today have some opportunities to experience limited elements of direct democracy in 26 states and the District of Columbia through initiatives, referendums, or recall. (See our Ballotpedia page on the history of initiatives and referendums.) Citizens may propose bills through initiatives, change or repeal laws made by legislatures by referendum, and remove elected officials with recall petitions validated and submitted for a vote to the people at large.
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Representative Democracy
The following features define a typical form of representative democracy:
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Elected legislators are chosen by the citizens to represent them in a regular cycle of elections.
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Any citizens of age may compete for their fellow citizens’ votes in the hope of becoming an elected representative.
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Any citizens of age may vote in elections and may vote for candidates as they please.
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In a single-member district, and in at-large elections, the candidate who wins the largest number of votes wins a seat, assuming there are at least two candidates for a single position. (There are other ways to decide the winner. See our Ballotpedia page on electoral systems.)
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Elections are also opportunities for citizens to hold their representatives accountable for their performance.
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Elected legislators are the only people empowered to make laws. They do so through competition and collaboration to attract a majority of votes for their proposals from their fellow legislators in a congress, legislature, or parliament.
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The laws made by the legislators are carried out by an executive office of government.
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In a presidential system, the citizens elect the chief executive. In the U.S., the president is elected by the citizens indirectly through an Electoral College.
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In a parliamentary system, the chief executive is a prime minister nominated by the controlling party or party coalition in the parliament.
The chief executive and appointed cabinet secretaries (or ministers) together direct a bureaucracy of civil service employees to do the actual work of administering the laws made by the elected legislators. See our Ballotpedia project on the Administrative State.
Most modern, mature representative democracies have features that look like these, with some deviations or innovations here and there. We will explore several of these in our next email.
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Republics
Some people prefer to say the U.S.A. is a republic. According to James McHenry, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention, a lady asked Benjamin Franklin, “What have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
In the late 1700s, when the U.S. Constitution was written, a republic was thought of as a system in which the government of the country is considered a “public matter.” This idea stands in contrast to the many absolute (or near absolute) monarchs of their day who saw countries as their private concern or property.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the modern concept of a republic is a state in which the people and their elected representatives hold supreme power, and which has an elected president, or a president or prime minister nominated by an elected parliament, rather than a monarch. A republic is a type of representative democracy.
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The use of the small-r word “republican” in this context has nothing to do with the big-R Republican Party. It is all about representative democracy as distinct from direct democracy.
Not only is the U.S. government a republic, but so are its state governments.
Article IV of the United States Constitution says, "The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government..." Thus, all state governments have an executive branch (the Office of the Governor), a legislative branch, and a judicial branch, each checking and balancing the others.
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Many scholars include constitutional monarchies and republics in a broader concept of “electoral democracies,” so long as the monarchs have no substantial power to rule. The United Kingdom is an example. According to data from Freedom House (2019), out of 195 countries in 2018, there were 114 electoral democracies. Of those, 83 were republics of various kinds.
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What's Next?
Defining the concept of a republic and the distinctions between direct and representative democracy can help bring clarity to many conversations. Yet, this is only the beginning. In our next email, we’ll take a look at the difference between republics and liberal republics. Note: the word “liberal” in this case has nothing to do with today’s politics and everything to do with 18th century thinking about liberty. Classical liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, the consent of the governed, and equality before the law.
Review
Check out the following Ballotpedia pages to dive deeper into today’s key concepts:
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