A Republic, If You Can Keep It

By Paul Pauker

The media's daily outbursts about the danger to democracy posed by the current administration, while highly amusing, omit a key piece of information.  The United States is not a democracy; the United States is a republic.

However, a common argument today claims that democracy as defined in modern times is not significantly different from republicanism as defined in the founding era.  For example, the historian Ralph Ketcham argued, "The founders would not have been opposed to the modern connotations of the word 'democracy,' nor would they have used the word 'republic' to mark out a distinction from those connotations."  But this is demonstrably incorrect.  Moreover, the widespread acceptance of the word 'democracy' to describe America is not a trivial matter.

For the most part, the founding fathers were strongly opposed to both monarchy and democracy.  A monarchy was defined as rule by a king while a democracy was defined as rule by the people, and the powers of a king or the people could either be limited or unlimited.  Nevertheless, the interest of the majority, like the interest of a king, is not a legitimate standard for determining whether something is right or wrong.  Rather, the legitimate standards for a government are the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence; in particular, the principle that governments are instituted to secure the unalienable rights of individuals.

The founding fathers were overwhelmingly in favor of a republic, defined as rule by representatives of the people.  And the United States is a republic with a constitution that deliberately restrains democracy by limiting majority rule, on the national level, to a few areas where the federal government has been granted a small number of specific powers.  In other words, the U.S. Constitution imposes severe limits on the power of both the people and the representatives of the people.  The Constitution was designed to provide the federal government with only those powers necessary to ensure an effective union of the states, while simultaneously upholding the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence.  Furthermore, the founding fathers, including George Washington, were adamant that -- regardless of public opinion -- the Constitution can be changed only with a constitutional amendment.  

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Articles: A Republic, If You Can Keep It