A Republic AND a Democracy!

When I first saw Conservative bumperstickers shouting, “A Republic, Not a Democracy!,” I could not understand what the fuss was about. Were they saying that Democracy was bad? Impossible! Ronald Reagan reportedly said that “Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.” Were they saying that the USA was not a democracy? George W. Bush would disagree. He once said that Philadelphia was “the city where America's democracy was born.”

To understand the slogan, I had to survey the Conservative blogosphere. There I discovered that the slogan was derived from two propositions: that a “Republic” is materially different from a “Democracy;” and that the delegates to the U.S. Constitutional Convention had sought to create a “Republic,” as opposed to a “Democracy.”

The first proposition is said to be a matter of definition. A “Democracy” is “a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation, usually involving periodically held free elections.” A “Republic” is “a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.”

I read these definitions and conclude that a Republic is a form of indirect Democracy. But Conservatives read these definitions and conclude that a Democracy is based on the sovereignty of the people collectively, whereas a Republic is based on the sovereignty of individual citizens. Put another way, Conservatives argue that a government in which “the people” exercise power through elected representatives is materially different from a government in which “a body of citizens entitled to vote” exercises power through elected representatives. I think they are ignoring the fact that, in a Democracy, “the people” in whom supreme power resides amounts to the “body of citizens entitled to vote.” No vote, no power. That is why American women demanded the right to vote. That is why Southern Whites created laws to disenfranchise non-White voters.

As for the second proposition, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention sought to create a “Republic,” as opposed to a “Democracy,” on the basis of practicality. Delegate James Madison explained 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.” It was based on this definition of "Democracy" that he argued in favor of a Republic, because only a small territory would permit remote citizens to assemble and participate directly in their government. In the end, however, Delegate James Wilson declared that he would describe the Constitution thus: “In its principles, Sir, it is purely democratical....”

I conclude that Conservatives are bellowing “A Republic, not a Democracy!” simply because they refuse to acknowledge responsibility for the American people collectively. Probably because their fellow Americans include Blacks, Hispanics, homosexuals, liberals, Democrats, Muslims, atheists, intellectuals and other people they hate. Personally, I don’t care if they hate me. But don’t say the Constitution justifies Conservative policies of hatred and privilege.

Happy 4th of July, fellow democrats!

Alex Budarin