Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Huh? A Republic is a state in which supreme power rests with the people. It is, therefore, a form of democracy. Whatever makes you think that republican forms of government are not democracies?
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It depends on how you define "democracy."
In its purest definition, often called a direct democracy, it's a method of governing where everyone votes on everything, and a simple majority rules. I don't think that there's any government that works that way at the moment. If there is, I expect it'll implode in due course.
In the U.S. we have a "liberal democracy" in the sense that everyone that meets a set of extremely
not stringent requirements is allowed to vote. (I still don't understand how showing photo ID to prove who you are before you vote is an undue burden on a voter.
)
But
functionally, what we
really have here is more of a representative democracy, where we directly vote to elect representatives to go off and, theoretically, do things in the government that they folks back home will agree with.
The real problem with a direct democracy is that there are more stupid people than smart ones, and if everyone gets an equal say, all you do is guarantee that the stupid thing gets done.
(Please note that while I may not be one of the smart people, I
am smart enough not to say which group I belong in.
)