Great article! But I think you're missing the number one trigger of "we're a Republic not a Democracy". In my experience, it's usually in response to a Democrat attacking the Senate or the Electoral College for not being "democratic" enough in structure. Often, it's coupled with the old gag: pure Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Thank you for this essay. It prompted me to consider a deeper distinction that the piece leaves unaddressed. The real uniqueness of the American political system isn’t primarily about how we govern (directly or through representatives), but about what is subject to government in the first place.
The core innovation of the American Enlightenment wasn’t procedural—it was moral. The Founders grounded political legitimacy in the concept of individual, natural rights, and designed a written constitution to delineate the structure of government in service of those rights.
This is the essence of a constitutional republic—not just a system without a king, and not just one that uses representation, but one in which there are principled limits to what government may do. This makes it fundamentally different from both ancient Greek democracies and Roman republics, which lacked a rights-based framework.
Terms like democracy and republic are often used interchangeably today, but doing so blurs this essential difference. A republic without individual rights is just majoritarianism in disguise—and that’s precisely what the American system was designed to avoid.
As game theorists would say, “democracy is a self enforcing equilibrium, which will just keep on going so long as the parameter values don’t shift too radically.” 🤔
If I remember correctly it was Rush Limbaugh that first used the term "Democrat Party" more as a pejorative as well as to de-link Democrats from democracy in the minds of voters. This issue comes up every so often in debates in Congress where a Democrat has to correct a GOP colleague that is it the Democratic Party and its members are Democrats.
Thank you, you’ve been one of my favorite historians for years.
Great article! But I think you're missing the number one trigger of "we're a Republic not a Democracy". In my experience, it's usually in response to a Democrat attacking the Senate or the Electoral College for not being "democratic" enough in structure. Often, it's coupled with the old gag: pure Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Thank you for this essay. It prompted me to consider a deeper distinction that the piece leaves unaddressed. The real uniqueness of the American political system isn’t primarily about how we govern (directly or through representatives), but about what is subject to government in the first place.
The core innovation of the American Enlightenment wasn’t procedural—it was moral. The Founders grounded political legitimacy in the concept of individual, natural rights, and designed a written constitution to delineate the structure of government in service of those rights.
This is the essence of a constitutional republic—not just a system without a king, and not just one that uses representation, but one in which there are principled limits to what government may do. This makes it fundamentally different from both ancient Greek democracies and Roman republics, which lacked a rights-based framework.
Terms like democracy and republic are often used interchangeably today, but doing so blurs this essential difference. A republic without individual rights is just majoritarianism in disguise—and that’s precisely what the American system was designed to avoid.
Very useful context.
As game theorists would say, “democracy is a self enforcing equilibrium, which will just keep on going so long as the parameter values don’t shift too radically.” 🤔
Another great article!
If I remember correctly it was Rush Limbaugh that first used the term "Democrat Party" more as a pejorative as well as to de-link Democrats from democracy in the minds of voters. This issue comes up every so often in debates in Congress where a Democrat has to correct a GOP colleague that is it the Democratic Party and its members are Democrats.