What is the main difference between democracy and republicansism?

Answer 1

"Democracy" and "republic" are not mutually exclusive, but not identical either. Democracy means "rule by the people" while republic means "rule by elected officials" (as opposed to hereditary rulers). A representative democracy is a type of republic. A direct democracy is not.

In a "pure democracy" or "direct democracy", the people vote directly on every issue. In a "representative democracy", or "republic", they instead elect representatives to study and vote on the issues for them.

Direct democracy is a bit unwieldy for anything much larger than, say, a small town, and so primarily exists only on the local level. Examples of direct democracy include New England town halls or the Athenian government in ancient Greece. Most national governments that are called "democracies" are representative democracies or republics, not direct democracies.

Some people are confused by the names of the two major political parties in the US: the Democrats and the Republicans. In fact, the names of the parties are purely historical (formed from the split of the Democratic-Republican Party in the 1820s), and both parties support the current system of constitutional representative democracy.

A constitution is what prevents tyrannical majorities from taking away the rights of minorities. This is unrelated to the distinction between "republic" and "democracy". The United States, for instance, is a "constitutional representative democracy", or a "constitutional republic". Both are equivalent. It's the word "constitution" that prevents abuse of individual rights, not the word "republic".

To prevent tyranny of the majority, modern democracies use supermajority rules, constitutional limits, or a Bill of Rights to limit the power of the majority. Personal rights are respected and cannot be taken away. This helps to avoid tyranny and mobocracy (the majority makes laws and governs by passion, prejudice, or impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences).

Mobocracy involves the government ruling and making laws for the "greater good" of all people, they may abolish personal rights in doing so.

Democracy is government by and for the people. They may or may not be republics--that is, government limited by constitution or charter.

The tricky part of "democracy" is defining "the people" and then deciding what counts as "by the people" and what counts as "for the people." In a sense, that could be considered the content of democratic practice.

Citizens are expected to participate more actively in a direct democracy.

Representative democracies are the common and "standard" type of governments found today, despite what many people (who may not know the definition of either) think.

In a mobocracy, the Majority has unlimited power over the Minority. This system of government does not provide a legal safeguard of the rights of the Individual and the Minority. It has been referred to as "Majority over Man".

In a constitutional democracy, the majority is limited and constrained by a written constitution which protects the rights of the individual and the minority. The purpose of a Republic form of government is to control the Majority and to protect the God-given, inalienable rights and liberty of the Individual.

The United States of America is founded as a Republic under the Constitution.

The US is a Republic with limited Democracy that exists mostly on the local level. In UK is a democratic country whereas India is a democratic republic.

In a direct democracy, every citizen votes directly on matters concerning the body politic.

A constitution forbids the representatives from voting on certain matters - such as not being able to vote freedom of speech away.

A republic might have public participation but the final authority might be an individual leader. A democracy gives the power to select and remove a government to the general citizenry.

A republic simply means a country where the Head of State is an elected politician.

The United States is a democratic republic, a mix, the people vote on some laws and propositions while the congress and senate vote on others.