‘Democracy’ is perhaps the most improperly used word in politics. It has such a nice ring to it and chances are if you ask somebody on the street what form of government we have, that’s how they’ll answer. If that is the case though, then it might come as a surprise that a founding father, Thomas Jefferson said “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”
Expanding on that, imagine if everybody could vote on everything. I could very easily imagine one of the first orders of business being outlawing the most immoral acts people do: murder, rape, etc. In a democracy, the majority can decide what the laws are and how to run the government. So we might imagine that the murders and rapists get locked up on orders from the majority. Then I’d imagine that the majority would continue to outlaw behaviors such as fraud, slander and so on. Pretty soon you’ll have some number of criminals and it probably doesn’t make sense for them to be able to vote; after all, they are the ones that can’t follow the laws, so why let them have a crack at changing them?
A second order of business would be to set up a military to protect from outside threats. This military must be funded and the people would vote on how to do that. Now perhaps everybody votes that everyone should have to put an equal amount of money into the pot for the military, but I highly doubt it. Since it’s up for a vote, people might vote to have the wealthy pay for the military and let the less wealthy keep their money. That seems like a plausible outcome. Now the less wealthy are getting the protection of a military without paying for it. But why stop there?
Thomas Jefferson said “democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” It’s not so hard to imagine the majority taking away voting rights from criminals. It’s not so hard to imagine the majority taking money from the minority. It’s not so hard to even imagine that the majority might take away property from the minority. The power isn’t in all the people, it’s by a certain class. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a government that I’d like to live under.
But what’s the alternative? Certainly monarchies are out, along with oligarchies (which are what a democracies turn into) and for the sake of discussion, let’s also throw out anarchy. What else is there?
Well, as Article IV Section 4 of the Constitution states: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.” It should be noted that nowhere in the Constitution or Declaration of Independence is a democracy mentioned. A Republican from of government is not to be confused with the Republican Party, but rather refers to a type of government known as a Republic. Republics are different from democracies in that the government is restricted in its powers by law. People have rights and they are not violated with a vote by the majority. Even when it comes to juries in this country, there is a requirement that you can’t have a mere majority, but rather a unanimous decision.
Republics guarantee people certain rights. Our Constitution is very much part of a Republican form of government, as it simultaneously limits the powers of the federal government (by enumerating only the specific powers the federal government has and with the tenth amendment reserving all others to the states and the people) and by listing rights, some of which are found in the bill of rights.
So while the word “democracy” might sound nice, what it really describes is not so nice. I think it’s important to draw the distinction not just for the sake of being picky, but because people really should remember that it is important to have rights and not just majority rule. Majority rule is not all it has been chalked up to be and the more we move towards it, the more our liberties and freedoms are destroyed.