Democracy or a Republic
How often do we hear the claim that our
nation is a democracy? Was a democratic
form of government the vision of the founders? As it turns out, the word democracy appears
nowhere in the two most fundamental founding documents of our nation – the Declaration
of Independence and the Constitution. Instead
of a democracy, the Constitution's Article IV, Section 4, declares “The United
States shall guarantee to every State in this
So what is the difference between
republican and democratic forms of government? John Adams captured the essence of the
difference when he said, "You have rights antecedent to all earthly
governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights
derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe." Nothing in our
Constitution suggests that government is a grantor of rights. Instead, government is envisioned as a
protector of rights.
In recognition that it is government that
poses the gravest threat to our liberties, the framers used negative phrases in
reference to Congress throughout the first ten amendments to the Constitution
such as shall not: abridge, infringe, deny, disparage, and shall not be
violated, nor be denied. In a republican
form of government, there is rule of law. All citizens, including government officials,
are accountable to the same laws. Government power is limited and decentralized
through a system of checks and balances. Government intervenes in civil society to
protect its citizens against force and fraud but does not intervene in the
cases of peaceable, voluntary exchange.
Contrast the framers' vision of a
republic with that of a democracy. According to Webster's Dictionary, a democracy
is defined as "government by the people; especially: rule of the
majority." In a democracy, the
majority rules either directly or through its elected representatives. As in a monarchy, the law is whatever the
government determines it to be. Laws do
not represent reason. They represent power.
The restraint is upon the individual
instead of government. Unlike that
envisioned under a republican form of government, rights are seen as privileges
and permissions that are granted by government and can be rescinded by
government.
There is considerable evidence that demonstrates
the disdain held by our founders for a democracy. James Madison, in Federalist Paper No. 10,
said that a pure democracy, "there is nothing to check the inducement to
sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual." At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Edmund
Randolph said, ". . . that in tracing these evils to their origin every
man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy." John Adams
said, "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not
commit suicide." Later on, Chief
Justice John Marshall observed, "Between a balanced republic and a
democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos." In a word or two, the founders knew that a
democracy would lead to the same kind of tyranny the colonies suffered under
King George III.
The framers gave us a Constitution that
is replete with anti-majority rule, undemocratic mechanisms. One that has comes in for frequent criticism, and
calls for its elimination, is the Electoral College. In their wisdom, the framers gave us the
Electoral College so that in presidential elections large, heavily populated
states could not use their majority to run roughshod over small, sparsely
populated states. In order to amend the
Constitution, it requires a two-thirds vote of both Houses, or two-thirds of
state legislatures, to propose an amendment, and requires three-fourths of
state legislatures for ratification. Part
of the reason for having a bi-cameral Congress is that it places another
obstacle to majority rule. Fifty-one
senators can block the wishes of 435 representatives and 49 senators. The Constitution gives the president a veto to
thwart the power of all 535 members of Congress. It takes two-thirds of both houses of Congress
to override the president's veto.
There is even a simpler way to expose the
tyranny of majority rule. Ask yourself
how many of your day-to-day choices would you like to have settled through the
democratic process of majority rule? Would
you want the kind of car that you own to be decided through a democratic
process, or would you prefer purchasing any car you please? Would like your choice of where to live; what
clothes to purchase; what foods you eat or what entertainment you enjoy to be
decided through a democratic process? I
am sure that the mere suggestion that these choices should be subject to a
democratic process, most of us would deem it as a tyrannical attack on our
liberties.
Most Americans see our liberties as
protected by the Constitution’s Bill of Rights but that vision was not fully shared
by its framers. In Federalist Paper No.
84, Alexander Hamilton argued, "[B]ills of rights . . . are not only
unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous. For why declare that things shall not be done
[by Congress] which there is no power to do? Why, for instance, should it be said that the
liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given [to Congress]
by which restrictions may be imposed?"
James Madison agreed saying, “This is one of the most plausible
arguments I have ever heard urged against the admission of a bill of rights
into this system . . . [because] by enumerating particular exceptions to the
grant of power, it would disparage those rights which were not placed in that
enumeration, and it might follow by implication, that those rights which were
not singled out, were intended to be assigned into the hands of the general
government, and were consequently insecure.” James Madison thought this danger could be
guarded against by the Ninth Amendment that declares “The enumeration in the
Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage
others retained by the people.” Of course,
the Ninth Amendment has little or no meaning in today’s courts.
Do today’s Americans have contempt for
the republican values laid out by our founders, or is it simply a matter of our
being unschooled about the differences between a republic and a democracy? It appears that most Americans, as well as
their political leaders believe that Congress should do anything it can muster
a majority vote to do? As such we have
been transformed into a democracy. The
most dangerous and insidious effect of majority rule is that it confers an aura
of legitimacy, decency and respectability on acts that would otherwise be
deemed tyrannical.
If we have become a democracy, I
guarantee you that the founders would be deeply disappointed by our betrayal of
their vision. The founders intended, and
laid out the ground rules, for a limited republican form of government that saw
the protections of personal liberties as the primary function of government.
Ideas on
FEE #34
March 2007 for
June 2007