10-22-2008, 12:36 PM
Quote:Finally I see what you mean (after I had done some reading). In my defense; both in the media as in politics people call the USA things like 'the greatest democracy on earth', and also many country are called (call themselves) a republic when in fact they are not.
It is incorrect to conflate the terms 'republic' and 'democracy', and it is sloppy to describe the US as a 'democracy', athough it would probably be fair to say it has democracy (with appropriate cynical quotation marks, at times). Some republics are democratic republics, and it is into this category which the US fits. It is in this sense that the US would fit into a list of 'democracies', that is to say, systems of government where the leaders are elected. The same is true of the UK or Canada, despite being (technically, albeit not very realistically) constitutional monarchies.
The question is really whether you are describing the system of government as a whole, exclusive of all other types, or whether you are describing the properties of that system of government.
-Jester