What type of democracy does the united states have

The votes of the majority decide the winners of the election, but the rights of the minority are constitutionally protected so that they can freely criticize the majority of the moment and attempt to replace their representatives in the next election. From time to time, there is a lawful and orderly transition of power from one group of leaders to another.

In earlier autocratic governments, the unrestrained power of a king or an aristocracy had typically threatened liberty. Constitution feared that a tyrannical majority of the people could pose a new challenge to liberty. Madison expressed his fear of majority tyranny in an October 17, , letter to Thomas Jefferson:. Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments, the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents.

This is a truth of great importance, but not yet sufficiently attended to. Whenever there is an interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done, and not less readily by [a majority of the people] than by a.

Unless they are effectively limited by a well-constructed constitution, which the people observe faithfully, the winners of a democratic election could persecute the losers and prevent them from competing for control of the government in a future election. This kind of danger to liberty and justice can be overcome by constructing and enforcing constitutional limits on majority rule in order to protect minority rights. Share Tweet Email Copy and paste the text below, or send it in a new email message : People are always arguing about whether or not the United States is a democracy or a republic.

Well, here's the answer:. Yes, the United States is a democracy, since we, the people, hold the ultimate political power.

This is where our history education might add some confusion. We are commonly taught that democracy is a product of ancient Greece. The city-state of Athens is credited with implementing a system of government of and by the people, whereby eligible citizens would congregate to make decisions.

That system of government, better understood today as direct democracy , lives on in the United States in the form of ballot initiatives and referenda. Some states and localities afford their citizens the right to use these measures to directly enact, change, or repeal laws themselves. More commonly, we exercise our political power in a different way: by voting in elections to choose our representatives.

These scholars understood representative democracy — the American variety — to be democracy all the same. The United States is a republic because our elected representatives exercise political power.

History also tells us that Rome was a republic, unlike Athens. When its monarchy was overthrown, Rome developed a republican system of government whereby citizens elected officials who were empowered to make decisions for the public.

Hopefully, this post will help lower the heat in the online debate.