A democracy or a republic?

Suppose that you’re walking down the street and you come to an intersection. There is a man standing there with his dog. You sidle up next to him and say, “Hey, nice dog!” Now suppose that the man looks at you, smirks, and says, “This isn’t a dog. It’s a German Shepherd.” Presumably, you would look at the person quizzically before slowly backing away. While that analogy is imperfect (as analogies tend to be), its basic premise holds vis-à-vis the popular debate regarding the type of government that we have in the U.S. Specifically, there are many people who claim that this nation is “not a democracy;” rather, “it’s a republic.” (Or a “constitutional republic.”) The problem with that argument is, well, it’s wrong. For at least two reasons. One is the fact that a republic is a subset of democracy, which renders the argument wrong both factually and logically. Further, most people who make that argument cite (usually unspecified) “Founding Fathers” to make their case. This is a classic logic fallacy known as “an appeal to authority” (i.e., what people often do when they don’t have an actual argument). To help clear things up, some definitions are in order....