We the people...

[The Vorpal Tribble]

This is a sort of survey for something I'm getting info on.

First off, this is not, and shall not become a political thread. There is an answer to this question, and it is not a matter of opinion. No jokes about what you think it should be or what you think it may be becoming.

Just answer the question if you would without looking it up first.

-=-=-=-

Which of the following is the official designation of the government system for the United States of America?

Capitalist Republic
Judicial Theocracy
Social Democracy
Presidential Totalitarianism
Constitutional Republic
Representative Democracy
Elective Monarchy

[Raistlin1040]

Representative Democracy.

[LightWraith]

Representative Democracy

[SurlySeraph]

I think it's Representative Democracy, but I'm going to say Constitutional Republic just to be different.

[Jae]

Supposedly Representative Democracy (coughcough)that just happens to be controlled by capitalism (cough)

heh. all snarkiness aside and personal opinion aside, why are you asking?

[Terraoblivion]

A federal republic governed through representative democracy on all levels.

Not sure why it is relevant to ask on a forum though

[Quinsar]

Representive democracy. Hands down.

[MattKatt]

I (a welshman) say Social Democracy, while my girlfriend sitting next to me (an american who reads over shoulders, yes you dear) says Representitive Democracy

[SpiderMew]

Capitalist Republic
or was it Constitutional Republic....

[Terraoblivion]

Definitely not social democracy, that is a political ideology common in Europe and not a form of government. Labour in the UK is an example of a social democratic party, as is SPD in Germany.

[Lemur]

Constitutional Republic.

In event of potential ignorance, I will prepare a pre-emptive Gah!

[King_of_GRiffins]

Constitutional Republic gets my vote.

[Pyro]

Representative Democracy, but I always heard "Representative republic".

[DraPrime]

A combination of Representative Democracy and Constitutional Republic.

[Catch]

A federal constitutional republic.

[MandibleBones]

Constitutional Republic would be a better descriptor.

[Raistlin1040]

Technically, we're a Democracy, and I know we're not a Social one. However, Constitutional Republic makes sense as well.

[Cobra_Ikari]

...seeing as it's a republic more than a democracy...I'd go with Constitutional Republic. But Representative Democracy would be my second.

*grins at Jae*...knew that was coming.

*smiles at Matt*...aww, that's so cute!

[Ganurath]

The official designation? We're a Representative Democracy.

[Haruki-kun]

I thought it was a Federal Republic, but since that doesn't seem to be a choice.....

Constitutional Republic.

"Republic" is somewhere in there, that's all I know for sure.

[Catch]

Technically, we're a Democracy, and I know we're not a Social one. However, Constitutional Republic makes sense as well.

No, technically we're a Republic because we have representative government. America would be a Democracy with the capital D if every bit of legislation was voted on by every person in the country.

[Zarrexaij]

Constitutional Republic, for sure.

[Tom_Violence]

Given that you've asked for the official designation, and not my opinion, I shall give you the actual answer.

Constitutional Republic.

It is, however, also a Representative Democracy (for the most part, though I understand some areas operate more Directly - I believe New England is quite reknowned for this, yes?), but this is not its official designation, nor is it its principle feature.

Edit: In fact, it would be in many ways wrong to describe the entire US as a Representative Democracy since, as already stated, some parts simply are not.

[Trog]

Elective Surgery
Representative Democracy.

[zeratul]

Generally it is referred to as a Democratic Republic. However the republic aspect is dominant in it's structure.

[Mr. Moon]

Risky sailing here, people. Be careful how you word your posts.

[Aramil Liadon]

Official? Probably Constitutional Republic or Representative Democracy. In my mind? Elective Monarchy.

[thubby]

Constitutional Republic
it's in our pledge of allegiance for god sake.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Constitutional Republic
it's in our pledge of allegiance for god sake.
*hugs thubby*

[wadledo]

To say something completly different, I'd say our government is an opossum.

[blackfox]

Constitutional Republic officially, Elected Monarchy unofficially. And especially depending on who's elected.

[Rare Pink Leech]

I'm pretty sure the official designation involves the word "republic", so I'm going to have to go with Constitutional Republic. Don't quote me on that though.

If I'm wrong, I have an excuse - I'm Canadian :smallwink:

[Mitxel]

It's a constitutional republic. Remember, allot of the dirrect democracy stuff, election of Senators, universal sufferage, ect., are modern additions.

[Farmer42]

If you actually pay attention to our constitution, we identify our nation as a republic.

[Leper_Kahn]

You guys are all insane. It's a Constitutional Republic!


Constitutional Republic
it's in our pledge of allegiance for god sake.

It is?

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

I see Republic, but... not Costitutional? I'm not trying to prove you wrong. You just scared me for a second there. I thought I didn't know the thing. :smalleek:

[Terraoblivion]

What i find interesting is that the US, being the most radically federal of all federal republics, hasn't even got federalism mentioned in its official title. Most constitutional republics and even most federal republics tend to relegate much less power to local power bases than the US does.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Actually, the official, unabridged title does mention Federal.

[Terraoblivion]

Ah, ok. I just found it strange if the Germany was called The Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) if the full title of the US didn't mention federal at all given how unified Germany is compared to the US.

[thubby]

You guys are all insane. It's a Constitutional Republic!

It is?

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

I see Republic, but... not Costitutional? I'm not trying to prove you wrong. You just scared me for a second there. I thought I didn't know the thing. :smalleek:

it's not perfect, but it says we're a republic, we have a constitution, 1+1=2.

alot of the confusion is understandable. republics as a whole share many aspects with democracy, especially the U.S.
and "representative democracy" is not exceptionally different.

[Terraoblivion]

Though you can have democracy in both monarchies and republics. Sweden is a constitutional monarchy as well as a representative democracy. Germany is a constitutional, federal republic as well as a representative democracy. Democracy deals with how decisions are made, republic refers to the title of the head of state.

[Mitxel]

Though you can have democracy in both monarchies and republics. Sweden is a constitutional monarchy as well as a representative democracy. Germany is a constitutional, federal republic as well as a representative democracy. Democracy deals with how decisions are made, republic refers to the title of the head of state.

Well, republic vs. monarchy also reffers to the basic philosophy on which a nation is founded. Americans are citizens, the British are subjects, ect. These days, as virtually all monarchies are now constitutional and democracy is the order of the day in the developed world, the difference is negligiable, and how they are run is more indicative of the strength of the specific institutions. (For instance, the United States, with it's strong constitution, and Britian with the weak Monarchy and strong Parlament both have a strong democratic system, while Saudi Arabia, with it's strong Monarchy, and Zimbobawe, with it's weak constitution, are both tyrannies.)
However, there was a time when that sort of thing mattered immensly.

[Serpentine]

Just to throw one in: England/Britain/the UK (one of 'em) is a Constitutional Monarchy. No bloody idea what Australia would be, though...

[Mitxel]

Just to throw one in: England/Britain/the UK (one of 'em) is a Constitutional Monarchy. No bloody idea what Australia would be, though...
I believe they would also qualify as a constitutional monarchy, since the Queen of England is also Queen of Australia.

[Terraoblivion]

There was most definitely a time when the monarchy/republic split mattered immensely. As late as the period between the world wars and up until this day in repressive monarchies.

However, British citizens are in fact citizens of the United Kingdoms as well as being subjects of the English/Scottish/Welsh/Cornish/North Irish thrones. Only the citizenship matters in any meaningful sense given that the powers of the British monarchy is pretty much limited to rubber stamping laws and cutting red ribbons at opening ceremonies.

[Serpentine]

Huh. Apparently we're both a Constitutional Monarchy and a Parliamentary Democracy. Go us!

[Brickwall]

Constitutional Republic. Half of those don't even make sense. Theocracy? You'd have to be bloody insane to think that.

[Thanatos 51-50]

This is a sort of survey for something I'm getting info on.

First off, this is not, and shall not become a political thread. There is an answer to this question, and it is not a matter of opinion. No jokes about what you think it should be or what you think it may be becoming.

Just answer the question if you would without looking it up first.

-=-=-=-

Which of the following is the official designation of the government system for the United States of America?

Capitalist Republic
Judicial Theocracy
Social Democracy
Presidential Totalitarianism
Constitutional Republic
Representative Democracy
Elective Monarchy

I was taught "democratic Republic", so I guess, "representitve Democracy" works.

Capitalisim is ecoomics, not politics

[kpenguin]

I say Constitutional Republic


Constitutional Republic. Half of those don't even make sense. Theocracy? You'd have to be bloody insane to think that.

Are you sure? I seem to remember Pope Washington I being elected by the Electoral College of Cardinals... :smalltongue:

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Constitutional Republic. Half of those don't even make sense. Theocracy? You'd have to be bloody insane to think that.
I know, I made about all of them up. If you notice however a lot of them have been chosen anyways :smallamused:

[Mitxel]

Constitutional Republic. Half of those don't even make sense. Theocracy? You'd have to be bloody insane to think that.
You would be shocked at the amount of people who walk around saying America is a Christian nation. And, somehow, they seem to have dozen of tv stations.

[MeklorIlavator]

Constitutional Republic.
Just an random question, but whats the difference between a Representative Democracy and a Republic? I've never gotten a really good answer, and as I understand it the main difference between a Republic and a Democracy is that in a republic one elects others to represent one's interests, but in a democracy on votes on manners directly. So a representative democracy would involve voting on others to represent one's interest...like in a republic. I think I'm mixed up somewhere in this, but I'm not sure where. Anyone out there know?

You would be surprised about peoples view on a lot of things(I had a classmate argue that the government should tell people what to print. After all, there's no way that that could go wrong...

[Terraoblivion]

A representative democracy is any form of government where the leaders are chosen by election of a majority of the population. Direct democracy is where the population votes on all matters. A republic is any government that is not ruled by a monarch. A constitutional monarchy is a government ruled by a monarch that has their powers defined by a constitution. As such both republics and constitutional monarchies can be both direct and representative democracies in theory.

And Thanatos I think that we would have learned by now if the US had become communist. Democratic Republic is one of the two titles communists use to call their countries, the other being People's Republic. Eastern Germany was formally called The Democratic Republic of Germany (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR for short) for example.

[Rockphed]

Since I feel crazy right now, I will attempt to justify all of these!

Capitalist Republic: Well, we are a republic, or that is what really should be said. Also, the US runs largely because people go out and try to con other people into giving them money in exchange for junk.

Judicial Theocracy: Who has the ultimate say in what laws go through? The Supreme court! As such, some people have taken to worshiping the court.

Social Democracy: We are a democratic society! Yay us!

Presidential Totalitarianism: The president has, and has always had, more power than many kings. The constitution proclaims, "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America," so the President has total Executive power. Erm, I am out of Ideas here.

Constitutional Republic: We have a constitution regulating what our government can do(though it is sometimes ignored) and we are a Republic.

Representative Democracy: Well, we choose almost all of our representives democratically! Except the President. And Supreme Court Justices. Hmmm, this one fails.

Elective Monarchy: I won't even try. This is, however, how I would label "Dictator For Life" states. Does anybody want to help me turn Hawaii into one of these?

[Felixaar]

Communist Police State

I mean, representative democracy >.>

[Serpentine]

The Democratic Republic of Congo doesn't seem to be Communist... And the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria isn't... Nor the Democratic Republic of East Timor, or...
:smalltongue:

[Naleh]

Constitutional Republic. Although a case could be made for a couple of the other options.


You would be shocked at the amount of people who walk around saying America is a Christian nation. And, somehow, they seem to have dozen of tv stations.

Just for the sake of the counter-argument: America is demographically majority-Christian. They also include Christian references in their Declaration of Independence, their National Anthem, their Pledge of Allegiance...

They aren't anything like a theocracy, though.

(For the record, there's only two or three TV stations here in New Zealand.)

[Terraoblivion]

The Democratic Republic of Algeria was named by the Baat party which is a form of Arab-nationalist, communism inspired social democracy, though. But yeah, the term has seen use outside communist circles since the end of the cold war. In any case pretty much all the Eastern European communist nations were called democratic republics and people's republic and both terms have heavy communist overtones.

[Mitxel]

Constitutional Republic. Although a case could be made for a couple of the other options.



Just for the sake of the counter-argument: America is demographically majority-Christian. They also include Christian references in their Declaration of Independence, their National Anthem, their Pledge of Allegiance...

They aren't anything like a theocracy, though.

(For the record, there's only two or three TV stations here in New Zealand.)

First, the American national anthem (which is the "Star Spangled Banner" BTW) does no such thing. (I can see how you would be confused though, we have way to many song for our own good.)
Secondly, the Declairation of Independance only mentions a "creator", now we can infer that is the Christian God as all the signers were Protestant, with the exception of one Catholic (Go Maryland).
The "under God" part was added to the pledge of allegiance in the 1950's to underscore the seperation between us and the Soviets. Plus, courts have ruled, several times infact, that it does not refer to the Christian God when law suits have been brought up over it. Same with the "In God We Trust" stamped on coins.
Plus the constituion pretty clearly lays out the U.S. government is to stay as far away from religion as humanly posible.

But, we are majority Christian, there is no arguing that.

(And, for the record, the T.V. stations I was reffering to are the seeming endless ones devoted to televangelists over here.)

[InaVegt]

Presidential Totalitarianism, I don't care what the propaganda says, that's what it is.

[Bhu]

Being new here and this being a political discussion I hesitate to enter it, but try having a peek a this article. It was posted by a gentleman I don't always agree with in another forum I'm in, but it does make a few good points.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reed/reed139.html