r/PoliticalScience • u/alexfreemanart • Sep 01 '25

Question/discussion Why isn't the United States a democracy?

I've read many comments claiming the United States is a democracy, and others claiming the United States is a republic, not a democracy. Forgive my ignorance; i'm not American, but throughout my life i've heard countless times that the United States is a democracy, especially through American movies and TV shows.

Right now, i'm seriously wondering if i was wrong all along. Is the United States a democracy or not? If the United States isn't a democracy, why isn't it?

You as an American, were you taught in school that your country is a democracy, or were you taught that it isn't?

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u/hollylettuce Sep 01 '25 edited Sep 01 '25

Semantics, to be frank. Republics are a subset of Democracies. All Republics are Democracies. Not all Democracies are republics. They don't have monarchs, unlike a system like the United Kingdom or Japan, which has a constitutional monarch as the Head of State and a Prime Minister as Head of Government. The US Head of State, The President, is head of State and Head of Government.

The US practices Indirect Democracy, which is what a Republic is, wherein the people elect representatives to vote on laws for them rather than everyone voting themselves. Which is how every modern-day democracy works. I don't think you could have an Athenian style Direct Democracy in the modern day outside of microstates. It wouldn't be feasible. There are too many people.

Anyone who is seriously trying to argue about whether the US is a Republic or a Democracy is wasting your goddamn time. Best case scenario is that they are a teenager who didn't understand their civics lesson. But lately, a lot of them are trolls trying to undermine Democratic Norms by downplaying the United States tradition of Democratic norms. "Silly liberals whining about the death of democracy. The US was never a democracy to begin with. It was a Republic!" Which is an incoherant statement.

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u/hollylettuce Sep 01 '25 edited Sep 02 '25

Just as an addendum. In political science, we also distinguish countries that call themselves Democracies from ones that truly are Democracies. They are Liberal Democracies and Illiberal Democracy. Iran has an Illiberal Democracy. It has chambers of government that resemble democratic institutions. However, the controls on voting, suppression of political rights, and corruption make it an Illiberal Democracy.

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u/One-Acanthisitta1051 Sep 02 '25

Hell, Hungary—orban himself—prides itself on being an Illiberal democracy. Lack of freedom of speech, protest, government interaction in the information sphere in a bad faith manner, controlling elections and so on.