The United States is a Democratic Republic

Roots:
res publica, Latin: the state, republic, or commonwealth

demos, Greek: the people, the populace, the common people of an ancient Greek city-state

cracy, Greek, derivative of kratia: power, rule

So a Democracy is a state ruled by the people

A Direct Democracy - a state in which the people exercise by direct vote the powers of all aspects of government, in our case this would be the citizens electing their President, citizens creating and voting directly for all laws, and citizens electing judges to judge all laws.

A Democratic Republic – in its modern meaning today, refers to a state in which the exercise of power rests in the representatives elected by the people.  In our case we elect the President and members of Congress, and the President appoints members of the Supreme court, with approval from the Senate. The USA is a Democratic Republic.  

 

The first democracy in civilization, a Direct Democracy, was in Greece during the Classical Period - 450 to 330 B.C.

Chapter 1

The United States is a Democratic Republic

The community in which Greeks lived in classical times was called a polis. The closest translation in English would be to call it a city-state. The city-state consisted of the central city plus the countryside. People living within the city-state were considered citizens. Athens was one of the more influential city-states.

The Greek city-state was a result of the geography of Greece, broken up as it was by mountains into well-defined areas. The people that lived together in a particular area came to feel a bond of social unity amongst each other. Each citizen felt responsible for the protection and welfare of the city-state. Each citizen also felt the city-state was in part responsible for their own welfare. It followed that everyone was ready to defend the city-state against invasion and equally eager to participate in the politics of government.

In classical times the government of the city-state was a Direct Democracy, the first of its kind, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. At any particular point in time, not just on election day, an estimated 75% of voters were participating in government in one form or another. The American democracy is government by the people through their elected representatives meeting at stated intervals – a Democratic Republic. In Athens, the people were the government - they exercised their powers not at intervals, but at all times and in all departments. Our word "politics" is derived from the Greek word polis, the city-state, where citizens played a highly active role in the politics of government.

The Greeks in their democratic city-states were able to set precedents in fields other than government, including art, literature, and mathematics, which are still studied today, and athletics, for which the Olympic games are named. The Greeks and their city-state have had a significant impact on the development of western civilization.

Negative aspects of classical Greek city-states included: constant warfare between city-states, leading to instability and economic strain, a reliance on slavery which created social inequality, no political participation for women and non-citizens (only men who owned property could vote), frequent power struggles within individual city-states, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a small elite, sometimes leading to debt slavery for the poor.

Note that after the Classical Period Greece slowly disintegrated and became part of the Roman Empire, which itself slowly disintegrated over 500 years and lead to the Middle Ages, also known as the Dark ages of Europe, which then lead to the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution.


Here are some quotes from our founding fathers clarifying their reasoning for a Democratic Republic vs a Direct Democracy.  Below they are describing the problems of a Direct Democracy and the need for a Democratic Republic.

The Federalist Papers, #14, by James Madison, 1787
The true distinction between these forms was also adverted to on a former occasion. It is, that in a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person; in a republic, they assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents.

The Federalist Papers, #10, by James Madison, 1787
A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.

The Federalist Papers, #10, by James Madison, 1787
Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. 

Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, 1789
A simple democracy, or unbalanced republic, is one of the greatest of evils.

John Witherspoon, Signer of the Declaration of Indepencence, 1815
Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state, it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage. They are also very apt to choose a favorite and vest him with such powers as overthrows their own liberty, - examples, Athens and Rome.

John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States, in The Jubilee of the Constitution, 1839
The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived.

John Adams, second President of the United States, in The Works of John Adams, Volume 6, 1851
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

Balancing Democracy and Republic.

It’s easy to see the need for a Democratic Republic vs a Direct Democracy, given the size of the modern United States. Today there over 250 million citizens, and in a direct democracy, we would all need to actively participate in government on a near full time basis. That’s a logistically impossibe as well as the fact that running our own lives takes up most of our time – we have too many other responsibilities to participate directly on a near full-time basis in politics and government. That’s why we have a Republic, we elect our representatives into our government.

Recall the first democracy, Classical Greece, had some real negatives: there were constant struggles and often warfare between city-states; there was slavery; only men who owned property could vote; and elections had a built-in bias towards the wealthy and concentration of power in an elite oligarchy. And this democracy only lasted 120 years.

Note our democracy has some real negatives: gerrymandering and limited competition for US House and Senate seats; concentration of wealth and power in an elite oligarchy; news media bias; social media manipulation; all of which lead to polarization.  The USA is about twice as old as Classical Greece.

How have we come to this point? The answer may lie in human evolution as discussed in Chapter 2.



 

Video Summary

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Resources for more information on ancient Greek history:

History of Classical Greece

A SMALLER HISTORY OF GREECE from the earliest times to the Roman conquest.

A History of the Classical Greek World: 478 - 323 BC, by P. J. Rhodes, Wiley-Blackwell publishing