“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” Will Rogers
“A democracy will continue to exist until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.” Alexander Tyler
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams
You ask: What is the difference between a democracy and a republic? There is a great difference between the two forms of government. In a democracy, governmental decisions are made by a direct vote of the citizens. In a republic, governmental decisions are made indirectly by a few people, chosen by all the voters of the nation.
In the early Roman Republic, the government was led by men elected to office by the vote of the citizens.
In the early Greek democracy of Athens, many government decisions were made by direct vote of the citizens.
The Roman Republic lasted about 700 years before Julius Caesar’s nephew, Octavian, became Caesar Augustus, establishing the Roman Empire.
The famed democratic government of Athens, Greece, lasted for about 180 years before being defeated by Philip of Macedon. You may remember King Philip’s more famous son, Alexander the Great.
Both of these ancient governments had many permanent employees to administer the laws and provide leadership. Any government will require permanent employees as administrators.
Who cares about all these ancient nations and personalities? We all should. This ancient history has many lessons for us today.
For example, do you know that the United States of America is not a democracy? Our Constitution was deliberately written to provide a representative republic, not a pure democracy. Every citizen of voting age in the United States, except a few convicted felons, has the right to vote in elections that choose people to represent us in governmental decision-making bodies.
At the national level the citizens vote for our president and our members of Congress.
At the state level, the citizens vote for our governor and members of the state legislature.
At the county level, the citizens vote for our county supervisors and for many positions that are really administrative, such as treasurer, assessor, recorder and others.
At the local level, the citizens vote for our mayor and city council.
All of these elected officials have the power and authority to make and enforce laws that are binding and control much of our daily lives. They also have the power to make laws beneficial to only a few citizens.
In other words, in our representative republic, we choose and elect people to rule over us. We cannot make changes until the next election.
If we make poor choices we suffer, and cannot easily have a do-over. We must wait until the next election. At the next election we are free to make new choices to represent us in governmental decision making.
We may throw the rascal out, only to discover the new rascal is worse than the last one.
If the United States was a pure democracy, we would be forced to hire a bureaucracy to propose laws, or changes to existing laws that the citizens would then vote upon. We would no longer elect “representatives” to make the laws. The elections in a democracy would be to actually create, change or eliminate laws.
Do you note, that in either instance, we would have to hire some sort of permanent bureaucracy to administer the laws, however they are made? Think of law enforcement. Think of national defense. Do we have either the time or the inclination to pass all the laws and policies required to protect us from enemies, foreign and domestic?
The real danger, however, of either kind of government organization is greed and apathy.
In the republic, we will have, sooner or later, elected officials who govern for their own personal enrichment.
In the democracy, we will have, sooner of later, citizens who will vote to enhance their own personal enrichment.
The only real solution in either case is to have voters who are both well-educated and have high moral principles. Also, the voters must not be apathetic and must pay attention to what the government is doing.
Mike Lang, Chairman, Union County Republican Central Committee