> I'm always confused by statements like "a republic, not a democracy." You're clipping the idea too short to maintain its meaning here. Let's look at what was

> I'm always confused by statements like "a republic, not a democracy." You're clipping the idea too short to maintain its meaning here. Let's look at what was actually said > the US has never been built as a direct democratic system. It's a Republic. The key word you've missed here is "direct". People say that the US is a republic and not a direct democracy. These have clear meanings. A (democratic) republic has elected representatives while a direct democracy puts everything up to a popular vote. This is the key feature people are distinguishing, electing representatives versus putting all decisions directly up for voting by citizens. The meaning only gets lost when people try to use this idea to smuggle in other related ideas like voting power in national elections being based on geography. That's a specific choice, not a necessary feature of a republican form of government.