Is the United States a Democracy or a Republic?
Answering one of the central questions about the functioning of American politics
“The United States is a republic not a democracy,” runs a familiar refrain in American political debates. Utah Senator Mike Lee made news in 2020 by making this exact argument. Politicians such as Lee generally trot out this argument to defend their opposition to democratizing reforms or resistance to popular policies. As someone who specializes both in the study of democracy and US history the phrase grates on my ears like nails on a chalkboard. The fallacy lies in the idea that the two are mutually exclusive. It is the equivalent of declaring that your meal is a sandwich not a lunch. Not all sandwiches are lunches or vice versa but in the right conditions a sandwich is indeed a central part of a lunch. The modern United States is indeed a democracy and a republic or be it a democratic republic, though it has not always been this way.
The History Behind the Terms
The classic historical example for democracy is Athens, the ancient Greek city-state generally credited as democracy’s birthplace. Democracy in Athens took the form of direct democracy. This means that all citizens (defined as wealthy men) participated directly by voting on the major issues of government with no one serving as a representative for others. Obviously, no modern democracy resembles that practice, but this democratic archetype provided two pillars of democracy that are relevant today, equality and majority rules. In a democracy all citizens, again citizenship was severely limited in Athens, are equal before the law and are entitled to one vote. In the voting process, the majority wins. These are the core principles of democracy.
Next let us turn to republics. Here the most famous historical example is the Roman Republic. Republic comes from the Latin res publica translated approximately as public affair or the people’s affair. Republic then at its core is a form of government where governing is a public affair. Historically, it has also been defined as not a monarchy, meaning that the head of state is selected by some process. Here the difference between republic and democracy becomes clear, the public being involved and leaders being selected does not require all citizens to be equal nor does it mean that a majority has to decide. Indeed, in the Roman Republic neither was true. Elected officials were selected via complex processes where people generally voted according to their tribe or military position. In these cases, it was a tribe or a rank that had a vote not the individuals that comprised it and each unit (tribe or rank) was comprised of vastly different numbers of people. Ergo the people’s voice was expressed in the government, but it was not a majority that decided nor equality that guided the process. This was by design and quite natural to the ancient Romans who saw no problem with people they considered to be of superior breeding and intellect having a greater voice in government than the lower rungs of society.
The Early American Republic
Moving to the founding of the United States, it is important to understand how democracy was perceived in the 18th century. With precious few exceptions, democracy was seen as an ancient form of government suited only to small states and overly susceptible to breakdown and mob rule. Being called a democrat was usually an insult. This attitude was prevalent among the founding generation of the United States. They indeed set out to form a republic and deliberately avoided democracy. There is a quote from a letter from John Adams that is often cited, “There never was a Democracy Yet, that did not commit suicide.” Individuals usually cite Adams as issuing a warning that democracy must be cared for if it is to survive. He was not, reading the full letter one soon realizes that he is denouncing democracy as an undesirable form of government. Earlier in the letter he states, “Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as Aristocracy or Monarchy. But while it lasts it is more bloody than either.” His sentiments are representative of most of his founding colleagues. Alexander Hamilton notably advocated for senators and the president, once elected, to serve for life, and he was not alone. Therefore, it is accurate to say that democracy was not on the mind of most of the founders.
Let us look more closely at how the early American republic functioned. After the current US Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation in 1789, the US government was divided into three branches, the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. The legislature, Congress, was divided into two houses, the House of Representatives, and the US Senate. Only the House of Representatives was subject to popular election in the original functioning of US competitive politics. Senators were selected by state legislatures that were elected. Next, came the executive branch or the President of the United States. Here the Constitution provided for an electoral college system. Presidential electors were not voted on but again selected by state legislatures. Once selected these electors were to choose for themselves which presidential candidate to support. This meant that there were three degrees of separation between voters and the selection of the president. The judiciary was even further removed with judges being nominated by the president and approved by the senate, neither of those positions being subject to popular election. It is also important to consider who was voting. States decide who can vote in the United States and in the early republic access to voting was almost always restricted to property owning men or those who could satisfy some sort of income requirement. In the early US, as in Ancient Rome, the people were involved in their government but there was no attempt to affect political equality or seek out the will of the majority. America’s founders also saw no problem with restricting participation to those who had shown themselves to be the social and economic betters of their peers, indeed they believed that doing so was essential to ensure the survival of the republic. Uninformed and uneducated individuals simply could not be trusted to make sensible and enlightened political choices.
Democratizing the USA
So, when did democracy come to the United States? That is a complex question to which there is no universally agreed upon answer. Nevertheless, there are several historic milestones that highlight the transformation of the United States into a democratic republic.
The first comes with the political rise of Thomas Jefferson, a radical in comparison to his founding generation peers, and the founding in 1792 of what is commonly known as the Democratic-Republican Party. An obvious allusion toward the idea of a democratic republic, the party advocated for greater popular involvement in government as well as reduced central government authority. It should come as no surprise that Jefferson and his party were staunch opponents of Adams and Hamilton.
Next we can see a steady democratization of the Electoral College over the course of American history. Already in the election of George Washington, some states chose to allow popular participation in the selection of electors. The practice steadily expanded as did suffrage in general as landholding and income requirements fell by the wayside over the course of the 19th century. The idea of one citizen, one vote, at least as applied to white men, became more prevalent. After 1856, property requirements on voting had ceased to exist altogether. By 1832 every state but South Carolina chose presidential electors via the popular vote and South Carolina made the switch in 1860. While the Electoral College remains an inherently undemocratic institution, on a statewide level it has been significantly democratized with a plurality of voters deciding the presidential winner.
One of the most significant points in the history of democracy in the United States is the presidency of Andrew Jackson and the founding of the Democratic Party we know today. Jackson complained bitterly after losing the 1824 Election to John Quincy Adams when the latter was selected as the winner by the House of Representatives after none of the candidates secured a majority of the electoral votes. Jackson had easily won a plurality of the popular vote among the four major candidates and felt he was clearly the legitimate winner. He won the following election outright and then founded the Democratic Party in preparation for his reelection bid. Jackson demonstrated an unprecedented commitment to the political power of the masses, which often shocked the political elite of his time. Famously, Jackson felt that his election by a majority of the electorate entitled him to near unchecked authority. It was during Jackson’s presidency that Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States inspiring him to write the classic text, Democracy in America wherein he discusses America’s transition to democracy and its lessons for Europe. In the 20th century during the world wars Democratic presidents reaffirmed democracy as a central American value. Asking for a declaration of war President Woodrow Wilson declared that the US had to enter the war because “The world must be made safe for democracy.” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, meanwhile, described the United States as the “great arsenal of democracy.”
Moving across the aisle we come to the Republican Party founded in 1854. With the rise of the Republican Party the United States was for the first time divided between two major parties that both ascribed to democracy as a desirable and American value. Abraham Lincoln, the first president from the Republican Party, famously described American government as a “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” in the Gettysburg Address, a now globally recognized definition of democracy. In 1910, then a former Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, delivered perhaps his most famous speech. Speaking to a crowd in France, Roosevelt told his audience, “Today I shall speak to you on the subject of individual citizenship, the one subject of vital importance to you, my hearers, and to me and my countrymen, because you and we are great citizens of great democratic republics. A democratic republic such as ours—an effort to realize in its full sense government by, of, and for the people—represents the most gigantic of all possible social experiments, the one fraught with great responsibilities alike for good and evil.”
Given that the US Constitution was not intended to set up a democratic republic, the path to democracy in America has included several significant constitutional amendments. First there were the Civil War Amendments. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, an obvious impediment to any legitimate manifestation of democracy. The 14th Amendment extends to all Americans “the equal protection of the laws” necessary for fulfilling the equality requirement of democracy. The 15th Amendment prohibits the denial of suffrage on the basis of race. While initially quite successful, by the end of the 19th century, these amendments had been largely hollowed out by Jim Crow laws enacted by the Democratic Party in the American South and discrimination across the country. But their existence laid the groundwork for a functioning American democracy. In 1913, as the political movement of Progressivism swept the country, the 17th Amendment provided for the direct election of senators. This was a fundamental reworking of the original structure of American government and means that Senator Lee and his colleagues owe their current position to one of the reforms that underwrites American democracy. Then in 1920, after decades of dedicated campaigning, American women secured the constitutional right to vote via the 19th Amendment. To counter one of the central tactics of Jim Crow laws, the 24th Amendment was ratified in 1964, prohibiting poll taxes as a barrier to voting. Finally in 1971, as part of the fallout of the Vietnam War, the 26th Amendment lowered the federal voting age to 18 years old. All of these amendments to the Constitution comprise the construction of the United States as an undeniable democratic republic.
Historians and political scientists disagree on the exact point at which the United States should be considered a democracy. While many contend that the US crossed the threshold at some point in the 19th century, 1965 is a date others claim is more appropriate. This is because in addition to the 24th Amendment, the United States passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Together these pieces of legislation gave legal weight to the equality of citizens and effectively enfranchised Black Americans in the American South while also providing for enforcement of the Civil War Amendments.
In conclusion, A review of the evidence makes it clear that the United States is undeniably a democracy, having adapted its republican form of government to democratic principles. While blind acceptance of any reform that claims to be done in the name of democracy would be ill advised, refusal to consider reforms because the United States is not meant to be a democracy is laughable. The history of democracy in America is hundreds of years old and stretches back to Thomas Jefferson. Democracy has long been a central American value esteemed by citizens across the political spectrum. The functioning of the US government today, from the election of the president and senators to the extension of suffrage, differs radically from the vision the founders first laid out and such reform began almost immediately. This is not a failure of the founding generation but instead a tribute to the framework they laid out that allowed subsequent generations of Americans to build a yet more perfect union instilled with the values of democracy. Attempts to cast the United States and its history as opposed to or apart from democracy are born either of historical ignorance or deliberate deception. In either case they should be discounted. The United States is a democratic republic!
Find the introduction to this series here!
Sources:
· Tocqueville, Alexis De. 2002. Democracy in America. Translated by Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. 2nd ed. edition. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.
· González, Francisco E., and Desmond King. 2004. ‘The State and Democratization: The United States in Comparative Perspective’. British Journal of Political Science 34 (2): 193–210.
· Keyssar, Alexander. 2009. The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. Second edition. New York: Basic Books.
· King, Desmond S, Robert C. Lieberman, Ritter Gretchen, and Laurence Whitehead, eds. 2009. Democratization in America: A Comparative-Historical Analysis. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
· Wilentz, Sean. 2007. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. Reprint edition. New York; London: W. W. Norton & Company.
Liked the things I learned about our history.