Democracies are political systems where people have a direct or indirect effect on policy, either by voting on policy themselves (direct effect, ergo direct democracy) or by voting for people who themselves will vote on policy (indirect effect, ergo indirect democracy).
The United States is a Presidential Republic which is a form of indirect democracy and why people correctly assert that the US is a democracy. Presidential Republics, which include the United States and large parts of Latin America, are governments where all citizens over a certain age can vote for political parties that sit in Congress as well as voting for a President who is the chief executive. In Presidential Republics, there is a clear delineation between the legislative and executive branches.
USA is world's oldest surviving federation. It has a federal constitutional republic and has a federal presidential style of government.
Representative. We vote for people to represent us.
Government by the people. < ----correct novanet answer.
We elect people to represent us, therefore, it is a representative democracy.
Power for, by, and to the people.
Direct democracy does not exist in the US. The US exercises indirect democracy, which means that the people elect representatives, such as congressmen, senators, governors, and the president. It is these people who handle legislation. Direct democracy means that the people vote on bills themselves (directly). Instances of direct democracy were found only in the ancient world.
In a representative democracy (such as that of the US) the general public elects people to represent them, and those elected representatives then form a government. So if the public wants something, such as, let us say, lower taxes, they don't get to vote on the taxes, but they do get to vote for people who promise to lower taxes.
People vote in people to represent them in government.
That would be we the people.
liberty on the people.
Ancient Greece is generally considered to be the earliest democracy.
Representative democracy is a democracy where the people choose a representative to represent them in the government. This representative will then vote for the things the people he represents want.