I found this interesting...

In trying to find the difference between the words "Democracy" and "Republic", Merriam Webster says this:

" democracy is to republic as monarchy is to kingdom."

The United states is a Constitutional REPUBLIC.

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Snuffy1957 · 61-69, M

If the Democrats have their way it will be a Socialist country...

Persephonee · 22-25, F

No one wants a geeky answer expanding on that phase, (and inevitably I'm giving it anyway!) but I think it's a good one.

"Republic" is from the latin "res publica" meaning "the things belonging to the people" - in this case, 'the affairs of state'.

In a republic, running the country is something which can involve everyone (most obviously, by voting), it's a public affair. And the opposite arguably is a kingdom, where running the state is a private affair, and ordinary people have less involvement in it, even if eg they're civil servants. (In Latin, it might termed "res privata").

But you can have a country that's run at least in theory by a monarch, such as the UK or Sweden, but which is in practice a republic too. Republic doesn't mean "no king" so much as "everyone can do stuff." Probably can't have a constitutional private kingdom that's run as a democracy though (no matter what places like North Korea might claim!)

Heartlander · 80-89, M

Polititians like to say we are a Democracy so when they get 50.1% of the vote they can claim that they rule by the will of the people.

4meAndyou · F

@Heartlander However, the word Republic is from the Roman version of democracy, which is slightly more advanced.

Here is the entire set of paragraphs from Merriam Webster:

"Republic comes from the Latin roots meaning “public good” or “public affair,” used in ancient Rome to mean simply “state” or “country” with reference to the representative democracy of the Roman Republic. The elected representatives in Congress are a contemporary example of this kind of government.

Because democracy is an abstract name for a system and republic is the more concrete result of that system, democracy is frequently used when the emphasis is on the system itself. We could say that democracy is to republic as monarchy is to kingdom.

These terms are not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, a document that nevertheless expresses clearly that governments should be established “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” This reads like a definition of both democracy and republic. In Article IV Section IV of the Constitution, the term republican is used as an adjective: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.”

SingleBHM · 56-60, M

Democracies always degenerates into dictatorships.

Snuffy1957 · 61-69, M

Sad... but true it seems

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