A republic is a type of government that has no king, queen, or other monarch and where the people are sovereign. This means that people can choose leaders to represent them and make the laws. The word "republic" comes from the Latin res publica, which means "public thing".
A democracy is rule by the people, by collective vote. Thus it is an agent of the majority.
The distinction is that republics are indirect democracies; the majority picks representatives who then make law. As it is indirect, a republic has a template, an infrastructure of agreed upon concepts, that the democracy must work within; on the other hand, a simple democracy can constantly be reconfigured by the majority.
The word "democracy" does not appear in any of the American founding documents. Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers: "Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority." The Founders intended for us to have a limited republican form of government where human rights precede government and there is rule of law.
A democracy is rule by the people, by collective vote. Thus it is an agent of the majority.
The distinction is that republics are indirect democracies; the majority picks representatives who then make law. As it is indirect, a republic has a template, an infrastructure of agreed upon concepts, that the democracy must work within; on the other hand, a simple democracy can constantly be reconfigured by the majority.
The word "democracy" does not appear in any of the American founding documents. Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers: "Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority." The Founders intended for us to have a limited republican form of government where human rights precede government and there is rule of law.
Seeing simple majority rule as a danger, the Constitution's Framers created several anti-majority restraints in the governmental structure. In order to amend the Constitution, it requires a two-thirds vote of both houses, or two-thirds of state legislatures to propose an amendment, and it requires three-fourths of state legislatures for ratification. Election of the president is not done by a majority popular vote, but by the Electoral College.
Part of the reason for having two houses of Congress is that it places an obstacle to majority rule. Fifty-one senators can block the wishes of 435 representatives and 49 senators. The Constitution gives the president a veto to thwart the power of 535 members of Congress. It takes two-thirds of both houses of Congress to override the president's veto.
People who do not understand the danger of the majority, who do not share the wariness felt by the Founders, see "majority rule" as an inherent good and think these cautions are inefficiencies that must be overcome.
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