Thoughts on the Republic

When I wrote this a couple years ago, we were in process of perhaps the most historic elections ever. Today I reread the Bill of Rights that was posted over on Travelers blog and it made me think of this little piece.


When did we get away from the idea and working belief that the United States is a Republic, and that we are a Democracy? After all, we are the Republic of the United States of America, not the Democratic United States of America. Is the problem that people do not understand the difference between a Republic and a Democracy? When did we stop teaching what the difference was? Did we ever?

A Democracy is a government that is controlled by the people. All people in the system (within the definition of what constitutes a “citizen”) have a voice in the process of the Democracy’s decision making. This system in and of itself, while we in some ways represent a Democracy, is not what the United States is. The idea of a true democracy is the people are called upon to make all decisions within the system. Greek City-States were examples of the truest form of Democracy, their size and autonomy lent to the ability of the people within the borders of the cities control to have a say in all decisions made. One might argue that the Native American culture was also a Democracy, with the Iroquois nation, the beginning of a Republic.

A Republic, is a system in which the citizens (again within the definition of what constitutes a “citizen”) have an impact on the government, but are not a “part” of the government per se. The authority of the Government is limited by law, not by the decision making voice of the people as a whole. Those laws are agreed upon by the people, but the policy making is left up to representatives of the people to the government. We are a Republic.

Now those are simplified definitions of Democracy’s and Republics, but as a whole they suffice for my ponderings.

I ask the question because of the up-coming election and the seeming belief that the citizens of our Nation (and those who are not citizens) labor under the assumption that the United States has to take care of them. i.e. Heath Care, social services, and other government sponsored programs designed to make people less responsible. I took a quick glance back in time (gleaning my recollection of history as I sit here in my office) as to where we stopped thinking of ourselves as a Republic and started looking at ourselves as a Democracy. As near as I can come up with, it was right around or after the Civil War. It was not an immediate change, but a gradual one. The idea of creating The United States was warped by people who thought that the survival of the Union and the abolition of Slavery included the thought that with the freedom, came the divine command that we take on the problems of “those less fortunate” as well.

I look at the people we put in charge and how they began to build the “Strong Central Government” idea. Not in any order but men like Woodrow Wilson, a Socialist to be sure, Teddy Roosevelt (thanks for the National Park System, I still think his attitude of don’t fuck with the US rocks though) FDR, JFK and the vocalization of a Democracy, LBJ and his “Great Society, all ushered the movement toward a Government that was the caretaker and that the “People” were the voice of the Government, an idea that is simply not true. Somewhere, we took on the idea of entitlement—that the Government is the Provider for the People--and that is a dangerous idea for the Nation.

It is dangerous because it discourages individuals from hard work and the satisfaction that comes from self-sufficiency. It is the rugged individualism of the pioneer that settled the frontier and this history, our history makes us different from the Europeans. We have a different sensibility as a result, particularly about the right to bear arms, but that is a chapter for another day! We believe in capitalism, not the welfare state. We are decidedly not “our brother’s keeper” but we are our brother’s helper. America has always helped those in need to get on their feet and become productive members of society. We do not believe in the Robin Hood society where the government takes from the rich to give to the poor.

But back to the Republic, we really need to remember the basic ideas that made the United States a Nation; we are not a Democracy and we need to beware of the Tyranny of the Majority, or rather, the perceived majority. The question we must ask ourselves is simply, does the majority really rule? In a Democracy, that is the impression they wish to give, but like the school yard bully, might does make right. The others in the school yard might disagree with the bully, they are the majority after all, but the violence the bully is willing to take on, rules. The influence of the violence on the majority sways those people toward the tyranny of the bully. In a Republic that violence is not the issue because we have agreed upon rules, laws which are adhered to, that are in place to deal with the bully in a clear and concise manner. If left to the Democracy, the majority vote could be unduly influenced by the violence of the bully; the unwillingness of the majority to get hurt as seen in Europe before and at the outset of WWII. A Republic’s representative’s job is to stand up to that bully, despite the chance of injury.

Unchecked majority rule is dangerous - after all, it was the democratic Athens that put Socrates to death. A republic on the other hand, helps limit the threat of majority tyranny and in turn, protects individual rights under the rule of law. Even deTocqueville, a big fan of the democratic form of government in his seminal work Democracy in America acknowledged one of democracy’s great problems - that being the inherent conflict between the desire for liberty and that of equality. He said “Americans are so enamored with equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.”

We want our citizens to prosper and to realize the American dream but every individual has to work for that and it must be acknowledged that it is inevitable that some will be more successful than others. That is why the Declaration states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”.

So as we step up to the poles this Tuesday, we need to remember that we are the power behind the government, and as such, we put those people in a position to rule. How they rule is what we as a Republic need to be sure that they understand; that the will of the majority might not be the best thing for the country we hold so dearly. They are the caretakers of this Nation. It is not selfishness, it is self interest, rightly understood. The “Democratic Majority” the Socialist thought that seems to be prevailing in our Nation today is dangerous for its future as the most powerful Nation on the Face of the Earth.