Democracy. Republic. Authoritarian: Where is our country going?

I am much too alone in this world, yet not alone enough to truly consecrate the hour. I am much too small in this world, yet not small enough to be to you just object and thing, dark and smart.

I want my free will and want it accompanying the path which leads to action; and want during times that beg questions, where something is up, to be among those in the know, or else be alone.

— From “I Am Much Too Alone in This World, Yet Not Alone,” Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

Some consider the United States a democracy, some a republic — more and more as drifting toward becoming an authoritarian nation.

Democracy is based on the Greek words for “people” (demos) and “rule” (karatos): “rule by the people.” People are allowed to take part in the government and its political processes. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln defined democracy as being

“…a government of the people, by the people, for the people…”

Republic is based on the Latin phrase res publica,

“the public thing.” It is a form of government in which the societal and civil affairs are considered a “public matter.” Representatives of the citizen body hold the power to rule. Because citizens govern the state through their representatives, republics may be different from democracies. Most modern representative democracies are republics. The term republic can also be used to define oligarchies such as Russia and China, aristocracies, such as the Queen Elizabeth II and her entourage and monarchies, such as Andorra, Belgium, and Denmark. The majority still rules in picking representatives, an official document lists and protects certain inalienable rights, which protect the minority from the arbitrary political whims of the majority.

In republics and democracies citizens are empowered to participate in a representational political system. They elect those who represent and protect their interests. The United States, essentially a republic, is best described as a “representative democracy.” The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights prohibit the government from limiting or taking away certain “inalienable” rights of the people, even if that government was freely chosen by a majority of the people. Inalienable rights cannot be sold surrendered or transferred to someone else. Examples include the right to own property, the right to freedom of speech, the right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, the right to privacy, and the right to education.

The United States is neither a pure republic nor a pure democracy; it is a hybrid democratic republic.

Delegates of the United States Constitutional Convention debated the question in 1787. At the time, there was no term for a representative form of government created “by the people” rather than by a king. In addition, American colonists equated the terms democracy and republic. James Madison may have best described the difference between a democracy and a republic, “(the difference) is that in a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person: in a republic, they assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents. A democracy, consequently, must be confined to a small spot. A republic may be extended over a large region.”

What is happening in the dis-united States may mean a complete reversal of democracy and republic. Law changes in GOP held states move them toward authoritarian oligarchy. They would change outcomes of elections in which they did not occur. They would take away our rights when it suited them. They would turn this country into another Russia, with a tyrant ruler and the arrest of opponents.

The election outcomes this fall and in 2024 will tell us the results.