[swilhelm73]

de·moc·ra·cy    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (d-mkr-s)
n. pl. de·moc·ra·cies

1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.
2. A political or social unit that has such a government.
3. The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.
4. Majority rule.
5. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.

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[French démocratie, from Late Latin dmocratia, from Greek dmokrati : dmos, people; see d- in Indo-European Roots + -krati, -cracy.]

re·pub·lic    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (r-pblk)
n.

1. 1. A political order whose head of state is not a monarch and in modern times is usually a president.
   2. A nation that has such a political order.
2. 1. A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.
   2. A nation that has such a political order.
3. often Republic A specific republican government of a nation: the Fourth Republic of France.
4. An autonomous or partially autonomous political and territorial unit belonging to a sovereign federation.
5. A group of people working as equals in the same sphere or field: the republic of letters.

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[French république, from Old French, from Latin rspblica : rs, thing; see r- in Indo-European Roots + pblica, feminine of pblicus, of the people; see public.]

Well our system is of government is indeed a republic, is is also a democracy, and specifically the most accurate terms would be a Democratic Republic or a Republican Democracy.

Democracy only means, as I highlighted, government by the people. It can be a representative form with a written constitution, as ours is, or a parlimentary one ala the UK, or a direct democracy as in ancient Greece.

So Williams is indeed right to talk about our democracy.

[Coleus]

No, we are a constitutional republic and NOT a democracy, not all dictionaries are right. A lynch mob (majority rules) is a democracy, we are not.