A democracy is a form of government in which people are allowed to vote on representatives, government officials, and often vote on certain government issues (referendums) with no regard to the laws made prior. The system is quite simple; majority rules.

A constitutional republic is a form of government in which representatives are elected democratically, but the laws that are made by the representatives cannot go above the chief law document of the land (the Constitution). All laws must be written in accordance to that document, or they are null and void. A republic puts the law above people.

You see, the problem with democracy is that the majority wins, and do not take the minority's views into consideration, which can lead to oppression. For example, suppose this country was to go entirely democratic, and Christians get a national referendum on next year's ballot voting on whether or not to make the US a Christian state. Of course, the Constitution has already said no government will respect or honor a religion. However, in a democracy majority rules, and as long as they have 51% of the vote, this will be a Christian state. It's the same way with almost every issue.

As for my quote, the logic is quite simple.....the majority of the people understand that they can use the elections to elect representatives that will give them "assistance" in the form of government programs, tax credits, tax writeoffs and such. But the problem is, that someone has to pay for it, which of course is a minority of the people (the rich). What will happen is that most of the taxes will be paid by a minority of the people, as it is today. Sooner or later, the rich are going to get tired of paying the majority's taxes and something has to give.

There is another thing too. If you heard Al Gore's speech last week you would have heard him talking about a tax cut Bush is trying to prepare in which for every $10 the rich gets, the middle class would get a dime and the poor a penny. Why is that? Because that's exactly how the tax rolls are now. The rich would simply get back what they paid.

The Libertarian Party, the only party that wants to actually shrink the size of the federal government, believes the Constitution nor the Founding Fathers did not want government to be in control of peoples' lives. The essence of government is the lack of power the government has and the power the people actually have. Therefore, alot of these government programs gotta go, and restore faith in the private sector.

As for Britain and France, I dunno much about their governments. I do know that a "constitutional monarchy" is mainly a fraud, since Elizabeth nor any of the royal family has any political power and are mainly figureheads. I think I would call them a feudal democracy, since the House of Lords is done by birthright, and the House of Commons is straight democracy, in which the Prime Minister is appointed by the majority party from the House of Commons. As for France, I dunno about.

Now do you understand the sig?

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"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship." - Alexander Tyler

"In general the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other." -Voltaire

"The assumption that spending more of the taxpayer's money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse. The black family- which survived slavery, discrimination, poverty, wars and depressions- began to come apart as the federal government moved in with its well-financed programs to "help." - Thomas Sowell

"Life is insensitive, and the truth can be highly offensive. To hide from either is to hide from the reality of life. Take pride in the fact that I am an equal opportunity offender. You today, someone else tomorrow. You have no constitutional right not to be offended." - Neal Boortz

Some of you still think America's a
democracy. Lemme break it down for
ya...

* Democracy:  Three wolves and a sheep
vote on the dinner menu.
* Democratically Elected Republic: Three
wolves and 2 sheep vote on which sheep's
for dinner. 
* Constitutional Republic: The eating of
mutton is forbidden by law, and the
sheep are armed.

The United States is a CONSTITUTIONAL
REPUBLIC. Not a democracy.

Yes....I am a PROUD Black Libertarian Conservative.