Basic Important Fact about US government

There is a common misconception that the United States is a democratic country. It is not. The United States is a republic. A republic is a union of independent local governments, in our case the fifty states, that share a common federal government, but have their own proportion representation state by state. A democracy means that every decision is made by "majority rules." In other words, every issue would be decided by an election and the proposal or the official who received the most votes would win. So, for example, in a pure democracy, there would be no Senate with 2 senators per state since there would be no states. If there were Senators they would be representing the entire country and elected by being the top fifty vote getters in a general, countrywide election.

So it's important to understand that while the United States believes in democratic principles, it is not a democracy, it is a republic. In fact, a pure democracy (which does not exist actually) would be detrimental to minorities because every law and official would be elected by majority vote. The good thing about democracy is that everyone has equal rights and one person one vote. The reason it cannot be implemented as a pure democracy, however, is that the law with the most votes and the person with the most votes would always win, drowning out the advocacy of minorities. This is why the founding fathers of the United States created the ideal balance. A republic protects the rights of every entity, no matter how small, such as the smallest states, local governments, and minority interests by ensuring republic based representation in the federal government. A pure democracy would not do this, but democratic principles (values and individual ethics and representation) are the guidelines by which all do have a voice and equal rights.

So it is wrong, to be technical about it, to say that the United States is a democracy and wants other countries to be a democracy. It is correct to say that the United States is a democratic principled republic and promotes democratic principles.

This is important when discussing Iraq, for example. It is tempting to think that perhaps Iraq would be better off as a democratic based republic, like the United States, by dividing Iraq into "regions." The error is that the divisions of Iraq would be based on religious and ethnic affiliations, and that is contrary to the model of the United States, which is the most successful model in the world. (Though lately I've started to wonder, though the fault is not with the founding fathers' model but the abuse of it by the oligarchies and special interests of this country. But that is another sad and frustrating topic for another time.) The states in the United States were founded on the basis of original settlements by the European countries who colonized America. States "gelled" around the colonies and their government established before the US declared its independence and fought the Revolutionary War. So the states were part of the original psyche of the United States, reflecting pre-United States colonies and their government and natural features (such as Champlain Lake dividing Vermont from New York). States were not created based on competitive and hostile religious or cultural entities. For example, we did not have a "Jewish" state, a "Catholic" state, a "Methodist" state any more than we had a "German origin" state, an "English origin state," or a "French" origin state. There was strong flavors in the early settlements, but because of both the indigenous population (Indians), heavy continual migration from Europe, and eventually the growth of enslaved communities into citizens, there was a deep mixture of religions and cultural backgrounds within each early state.

This is a stark difference from ideas to create a republic in Iraq (on paper a noble idea) but in reality a disaster, because the republic would be structured along feuding cultural, tribal and religious lines, totally opposite of the successful model of the United States. The United States came together as a country, by gluing together states that all shared common democratic values into a republic of shared values. Iraq, ironically under Saddam Hussein had less division of country wide values than it does today. So a republic, while a noble structure, would be incorrectly used to harden the divisions and bake them into the governmental structure that resulted from the overthrow and war in Iraq. This is why the sheiks making their own decision to stop the infighting is the best solution, because that is drawing upon the traditional power bases that do exist (a parallel to the original colonial structures that were prototypes of the states in the USA).

Anyway, I hope this helps in understanding the US (and the crisis in civic understanding taking place today) and also world issues. This was basic information taught when I was in school.