Democracy vs. Republic
I read this recently, probably in an email from Patriot Post. I thought it well worth posting!
“High up on my list of annoyances are references to the United States as a democracy and the suggestion that Iraq should become a democracy… I can’t think of a worse place to have a democracy—majority rule. Iraq needs a republic like that envisioned by our founders—decentralized and limited government power. In a republican form of government, there is rule of law. All citizens, including government officials, are accountable to the same laws. Government intervenes in civil society to protect its citizens against force and fraud but does not intervene in the cases of peaceable, voluntary exchange. Democracy, what the Bush administration calls for, is different. In a democracy, the majority rules either directly or through its elected representatives. The law is whatever the government determines it to be. Laws aren’t necessarily based upon reason but power. In other words, democracy is just another form of tyranny—tyranny of the majority.” —Walter Williams