40 ms·

If only we lived in a democracy rather than a constitutional republic.

• aaron-lebo 13y ago
  Hey now, if you are going to be pedantic make sure you get your facts straight. If I'm remembering right, prior to James Madison's writings, there wasn't a real distinction between democracy and republic, besides the fact that democracy was Greek and republic was Latin. Madison in the Federalist Papers made the distinction between democracy and republic that are your talking about, but it is pretty arbitrary. Now you are right that we don't live in a direct democracy (though states have features), but we are still a democracy and a republic. Now that I am being pedantic someone will probably point out where I am in error, but I just felt like posting some information for whoever may find it useful. :)
  • droopybuns 13y ago
    You are awesome and I enjoyed your pedant! :)
  • deciplex 13y ago
    I've always understood democracy to refer to suffrage, limited or universal, while republic basically amounts to "not a principality" (which is not very descriptive).
  • ton2lavega 13y ago
    No, the distinction between democracy and republic was well established before Madison. It appears in James Harrington's works. It also appears in works of Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and even Aristotle. I could find the precise quotes of their works to support my point, but I'm not at home. If you're into this kind of stuff, I recommend Bernard Manin's The Principles of Representative Government. Sounds boring but it's actually a great book.
    • aaron-lebo 13y ago
      Thanks for your response. I had a feeling I was going of faulty memory myself. I will certainly find out about that book.