Friday, October 17, 2014

Why It Is Important To Understand The Constitutional Republic VS Democracy Debate

By Patty Goff


Many countries have democracies and they are in terrible shape. The United States formed a republican form of government, in 1787, with the writing and acceptance of the US Constitution. This great experiment, as many called it, was the first time such a government came into existence and it is to be guarded jealously. Noting some of the differences to the constitutional republic VS democracy debate will be helpful.

Looking into a republican form of government, one finds that the peoples rights are guaranteed because of the writing of a constitution. In the United States, this document sets up a separation of powers. This is established as the legislative, executive and judicial branches which serve as a check and balance against each other.

When dealing with a democracy, the vote, for whatever is being decided on, carries the issue and the majority wins. That vote will be for the leaders of the period and they will be the new masterminds as there is no separation of powers. They do not have the restrictions of a constitution to guide them and each new administration will change the rules, the laws and taxes as they see fit.

In a republic, the people elect members of the various houses of congress and the presidency. The people also express their desires as far as certain issues come to be debated by these politicians. It is expected that the peoples will is taken into consideration, and should be, before the issues under consideration are passed into law.

One of the things about democracy is that it has often been called mob rule. When the vote occurs, the majority wins and the minority loses. There are no minority rights as all members of the society must adhere to the new majority decision. This is akin to a group of 20 lions and 15 zebras having a vote on what to have for dinner.

It is important to note that the US Constitution had to be ratified, or accepted, by the majority of the current states in 1787. They had to say that they agreed to this document before it could be made the law of the land. This is important because it had never been done before in the history of the world. The people, of a majority of the states, must also accept any changes to it. They do not, in a republican form of government, get a chance to physically vote for everything that passes both houses of congress. They do, however, believe that the representatives they send should be tuned into their ideas.

Republican forms of government are to follow the guidelines outlined in the Constitution. This guideline indicates what is to be done in areas that are not specifically mentioned in the document. A democracy, on the other hand, has no controlling piece of paper that proscribes certain things. They attempt to distant themselves from anything that happened before and they do not need to follow the lessons learned in previous history.

The fact that the United States, in 2014, does not resemble a republican form of government is to every voters detriment. The framers of the Constitution created a republican, federal government. It did not want a national government which would have resembled a democracy they did not want to establish.




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