We 're A Republic, By William P. Meyers

Fourth, the definition of the word "democracy" has changed. The way Americans see the word doesn't refer to a static system as it once did, it is ever changing and improving.

The word democracy comes from two Greek words: demos, meaning "the people," and kratein, meaning "to rule." These two words are joined together to form a democracy, literally meaning "rule by the people". Nowadays democracy could be referred as a rule of the majority. It is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or choose delegates from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. The Greek system of government was maybe more like a true democracy or administered by the general population than any other ever. On the other hand, most American politicians with mindfulness and knowledge have realized that the U.S. is not a Democracy as a country, regardless of the way that most people declare it to be a Democracy. Greek and American democracy have some similarities such as the amount of nationalism and patriotism saw in the people when a lack of representation for a city-state or nation as a whole is seen, and they both vote for their political leaders.

When writing the Constitution, one of the most prominent arguments focused on whether America should be considered a Democracy. A large percentage of the founding fathers feared the term “Democracy” because they strongly believed that if the people had control, then there would be disorder and violence. As James Madison stated in Federalist No. 10,

In his text, The Republic, Plato leads us through an elaborate thought experiment in which he creates the ideal city. Throughout The Republic Plato constructs the laws and societal structures of what he deems will lead to a high functioning society. He names this city Kallipolis. A cornerstone of Kallipolis’ structure is Plato’s principle of specialization. The Principle of Specialization argues that each member of society must do the job in which he is best suited. Plato explains “The result, then, is that more plentiful and better-quality goods are more easily produced if each person does one thing for which he is naturally suited, does it at the right time, and is released from having to do any of the others.” (Plato, 370c) Therefore,

When the United States (or any other nation) is referred to as a “democratic republic” we then know two things about that nation’s system of government. First, the term “democratic” tells us that the citizens of a nation rule its government and that those citizens are afforded certain rights. These rights include the right of speech, free press, free elections, and religious freedom. Secondly, the term “republic” refers to the process of a nation’s citizens voting in/electing their own representatives. So, when someone describes the United States as a “democratic republic” they are simply stating that we the citizens rule our government, that we have certain rights, and that we choose our representatives. An example that demonstrates that the U.S. is a democratic government is our Constitution. Our constitution helps to limit the power of the government and keep the power in the hands of the people, therefore making us democratic. While an example illustrating that the U.S. is a republic is Election Day where we elect our president.

     Democracy is defined as “A system of government in which ultimate political authority is vested in the People.” The Declaration’s

From what I understand, the founding republican principles used to be widely understood and commonly accepted by our populace. It appears to me, during the last century, the notion has fraudulently become nearly widely accepted that our country is a democracy. I am of the opinion this is especially true amongst the less educated due primarily to years of liberal indoctrination within our public schools, the liberal media, and other leftists fulfilling agendas as they rewrite history. Past presidents have even implied the United States is a democracy; for example, Woodrow Wilson declared that we fought World War I “to make the world safe for democracy.” & Franklin Roosevelt said that the U.S. “must be the great arsenal of democracy.”

President James Garfield’s tragic death is brought to new life in the book The Destiny of the Republic. Author Candice Millard shows readers just how that very incident brought one nation together. This being in the middle of the Gilded Age, at times it looked like the nation had everything under its belt but in reality, people didn’t see the corrupt happenings at that time. Through poverty, war, a surprising turn in events, to downright failure in medicine, President Garfield’s life was a downward spiral and he wasn’t even aware. As much as Garfield was unaware of that, Americans at the time were unaware that they were slowly beginning to unite over the ignorance of both Doctor Bliss and Charles Guiteau. Millard didn’t just write a book of a detailed and historic biography, she wrote somewhat effortlessly of the personal yet challenging circumstances Garfield and his family were in and simply told a story.

It’s hard to define something big as democracy in few short words, but president Abraham Lincoln does it best by defining democracy as a “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” (Bleicherstrasse). The Merriam Webster Dictionary barely scratches the surface of what democracy really means. It tries to define democracy as “a form of government in which people choose leaders by voting, a country ruled by democracy, an organization or situation in which everyone is treated equally and has equal rights”, but democracy is so much more than that. For a government to be considered true democracy it must support these four key elements “A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections, the active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life, protection of the human rights of all citizens, a rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens” (Diamond, 2004). If we go by this definition of democracy than America is not consider to be true democracy.

Democracy, as most people think of it today, did not exist during the first few decades of U.S. history.

In the June of 1915, Anna Howard Shaw exposes the hypocrisy in America's voting system in her speech "The Fundamental Principle of a Republic." Her voice full of acerbic indignation indicates her frustration with male domination in America's so-called Republic. She denounces America as a Republic since half of its citizens cannot vote and condemns its arbitrary and discriminatory form of voting. She employs a sarcastic tone to demonstrate how ridiculous the voting system is and to gain men's support in the women's suffrage movement.

Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines democracy "as a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by the people" (www.merriam-webster.com). But the one big problem is that "We the people" are not exercising their "supreme power" to determine the U.S. government. Less than half of the eligible electorate showed up at the polls for the 1996 U.S. presidential election. While lower turnout has marred previous presidential elections, 1996's voter turnout dipped below 50 percent for the first time in more than 30 years. It appears that the people's increasing cynicism about politicians that they lie to get elected and the perception that people have no respect or confidence in the

The term “democracy” had multiple definitions, including a government that was directly governed by the people. This term was used more often during the American Revolution to inspire the struggle for independence.

In the book, the birth of republic, Edmund Morgan showed the challenge of British taxation imposed on Americans and the quest for search of constitutional principles so as to protect their freedom leading to revolution. In this book, the author portrayed how the experience of the founders of the nation shaped the convictions and how these elements were fit into the constitution and governmental legislatures.

The project that Alexis de Tocqueville undertook in writing Democracy in America was highly ambitious, and became one of the most influential texts of the nineteenth century, and remains to this day a classic in political science literature. Having witnessed the failure of France to democratize, Tocqueville sought out to study a prosperous democracy. The United States of America during the writing of this text exemplified stability and democratic governance, allowing Alexis de Tocqueville to gain insight into making a democratic government succeed. His travels and studies in the United States ultimately led him to conclude that the transition toward a democratic government and equality of conditions had developed strongest in America, though he suggests that it is indeed a universal phenomenon and a perpetual historical tendency that could not be stopped. This conclusion that democratic development is inevitable encouraged him to examine the process in an attempt to understand the strengths, as well as the dangers, associated with democratic governance.