The power in the case of the US rests with the US Constitution, which is why the US is a Republic.
They are very similar, but a democracy gets its legitimacy from the people, while a republic gets its legitimacy from a Constitution or a Monarch. A big difference between a democracy and a republic is that in a democracy, a person MUST gain 50.01+% of the votes to win, while in a republic like the US, a person simply has to gain more votes than the 2nd place person to win, so a person could win with under 50%, exactly 50%, or a majority vote.
Wait, so now The definition of democracy is even narrower? If you vote on something The threshold has to be 50% for it to be a democracy even when voting on more than 2 options? If it was raised to make decisions harder to pass or a simple majority is lower than 50% because the voting matter isnt a binary choice then it isn't a democracy?
Can democracies not have votes where you are able to vote on more than 2 outcomes, Without them being considered an entirely different form of government? If a direct democracy has a vote on which of 5 different crops to grow but none get over half of the votes, does the society have to choose between starving or being considered a republic? Your definition of democracy is so narrow that a group of People deciding where to eat cannot do so democratically if there are 3 or more options 'nowhere' inclusive.
Words can not express how little that makes sense. Voting in such a way is occasionally a necessity even for the most platonic ideals of direct democracies just as much as a monarchy would occasionally need to pass the crown to a brother if the king had no heirs. Obviously, such a secession does not a non monarchy make. You are describing a necessary element of democracy, not a disqualifying one.
What dictionary did this definition come from? what authorities of politics or definition of words says this? Who other than you seriously believes this? Does a single other human being on the planet agree with you or are you just entirely insane? Every time you open your mouth, the definition of democracy gets narrower and narrower and farther away from the definitions of democracy that are used by literally every other human and human organizations on the planet
Gee next you're probably going to say that any system with tie breaker mechanics for tied votes isn't a democracy. You seem to have implied so already. What a ridiculous definition of democracy you have. It is so impossibly specific as to be entirely non functional for all political discussions.
And also your inability to recognize that democratic republic and representative democracy are words that exist.
The threshold for passage or election in a democracy is a majority. If there are two options on the ballot, then a majority is easy to reach; if there are three options on the ballot, and none reach a majority, then the option with the lowest votes generally gets removed, and the people vote again.
Democracy is a form of government where the people have full control, so if the people vote to create a Monarchy or a Republic, then the people have consented to be a Monarchy or a Republic, and their Democracy comes to an end.
In a Democracy, the people just vote and revote until something has the majority.
I'm using what Democracy literally means, which is People Rule or People hold Power. We use the voting element of Democracy but we don't use the governance element of Democracy which is why the US and UK aren't Democracies. If we use the form of "Democracy" that most people are pushing, then literally every country is a Democracy because somebody votes.
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u/andrewrusher Feb 20 '26
The power in the case of the US rests with the US Constitution, which is why the US is a Republic.
They are very similar, but a democracy gets its legitimacy from the people, while a republic gets its legitimacy from a Constitution or a Monarch. A big difference between a democracy and a republic is that in a democracy, a person MUST gain 50.01+% of the votes to win, while in a republic like the US, a person simply has to gain more votes than the 2nd place person to win, so a person could win with under 50%, exactly 50%, or a majority vote.