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>The cornerstone of liberal democracy is... For the love of god or anything you find holy, STOP insisting we live in a democracy! I stop reading any article t

>The cornerstone of liberal democracy is... For the love of god or anything you find holy, STOP insisting we live in a democracy! I stop reading any article that asserts we live in a democracy or should strive to live in one. We live in a republic. http://www.c4cg.org/republic.htm http://www.c4cg.org/republic.htm [edit for auto-complete]

druiid 13y ago
I thought about commenting on that, but I knew what he meant.
ubernostrum 13y ago
For the love of god or anything you find holy, STOP insisting that only direct democracy counts as democracy!
- IanDrake 13y ago
  Even being succinct and saying "a representative democracy" doesn't imply a form of government which is constrained by a constitution. Saying democracy instead of republic just undermines the common understanding of how our government was setup to function.
  - dragonwriter 13y ago
    > Even being succinct and saying "a representative democracy" doesn't imply a form of government which is constrained by a constitution. Neither does saying "republic". And "representative democracy" isn't succinct compared to "democracy", its verbose. > Saying democracy instead of republic just undermines the common understanding of how our government was setup to function. No more than saying "republic" instead of "democracy". A "federal republic that is also a representative democracy governed under a written constitution" would avoid that problem, but its a lot to write, when "democracy" is the part that is relevant to the point you are trying to make.
mindcrime 13y ago
We live in a republic A democratically elected representative republic, specifically. I agree that you are correct in a pedantic sense, but our society is a "democratic society" in a more general, looser sense. Given the context of TFA, I think the usage is correct enough.
sliverstorm 13y ago
We live in a republic, but is a republic not extremely similar to a representative democracy?
- dragonwriter 13y ago
  "Republic" is essentially orthogonal to "representative democracy". The United States of America has a government which is both a republic (and, more specifically, a federal republic) and a representative democracy. There are republics that aren't any kind of democracy, and representative democracies that are not republics (e.g., the United Kingdom.)
dragonwriter 13y ago
> We live in a republic Republic refers to any form of government which is not a monarchy. The US is a republic -- specifically, a federal republic -- it is also a democracy -- specifically a representative democracy. The whole "The US is not a democracy, its a republic" thing makes as much as saying "16 isn't a perfect square, its an even number."

druiid 13y ago

I thought about commenting on that, but I knew what he meant.

ubernostrum 13y ago

For the love of god or anything you find holy, STOP insisting that only direct democracy counts as democracy!

IanDrake 13y ago
Even being succinct and saying "a representative democracy" doesn't imply a form of government which is constrained by a constitution. Saying democracy instead of republic just undermines the common understanding of how our government was setup to function.
- dragonwriter 13y ago
  > Even being succinct and saying "a representative democracy" doesn't imply a form of government which is constrained by a constitution. Neither does saying "republic". And "representative democracy" isn't succinct compared to "democracy", its verbose. > Saying democracy instead of republic just undermines the common understanding of how our government was setup to function. No more than saying "republic" instead of "democracy". A "federal republic that is also a representative democracy governed under a written constitution" would avoid that problem, but its a lot to write, when "democracy" is the part that is relevant to the point you are trying to make.

mindcrime 13y ago

We live in a republic A democratically elected representative republic, specifically. I agree that you are correct in a pedantic sense, but our society is a "democratic society" in a more general, looser sense. Given the context of TFA, I think the usage is correct enough.

sliverstorm 13y ago

We live in a republic, but is a republic not extremely similar to a representative democracy?

dragonwriter 13y ago
"Republic" is essentially orthogonal to "representative democracy". The United States of America has a government which is both a republic (and, more specifically, a federal republic) and a representative democracy. There are republics that aren't any kind of democracy, and representative democracies that are not republics (e.g., the United Kingdom.)

dragonwriter 13y ago

> We live in a republic Republic refers to any form of government which is not a monarchy. The US is a republic -- specifically, a federal republic -- it is also a democracy -- specifically a representative democracy. The whole "The US is not a democracy, its a republic" thing makes as much as saying "16 isn't a perfect square, its an even number."