I must have gone to a real different kind of school (or at a different time)... 'cause I remember being told in school that the vote was the defining characteristic of a democracy... with the implication being of course that the majority of votes are to elect officials who then vote in proxy for us on issues that would otherwise choke our civil infrastructure to death with vote after vote making it practically impossible for us to get any work done. The theory sounds okay -- except that I think if we really are doing that much voting we're creating way too damn much law, etc...
I'm fairly well libertarian in my thinking nowadays... so... was the elected official what originally set apart a democracy (presumably where everyone votes on every issue) from a republic (presumably where officials vote on most things)? > Probably based on the text of the Constitution which > guarantees to each > state a republican form of government. > In school we were taught that were differences in a > republic and democracy, > only recently(today) have I heard that the definition of > democracy has > evolved to include elected representatives. > Republic: > http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=republic > Democracy: > http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=democracy > At 12:29 PM 7/6/2003 -0500, you wrote: >>Funny tho that ... at least the last time I looked them >>up, Democracy and >>Republic have the same definition in the dictionary... as >>a matter of >>fact, they're listed as each others' synonyms... or they >>were in my >>dictionary... Which makes question #1 somewhat difficult >>to guess at if >>you don't know what their specific intimation is. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > ~~~~~~~~~~~| > Archives: > http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 > Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index. > cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 > This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by > CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion > Hosting. > http://www.cfhosting.com > Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/uns > ubscribe.cfm?user=633.558.5 s. isaac dealey 972-490-6624 new epoch http://www.turnkey.to lead architect, tapestry cms http://products.turnkey.to tapestry api is opensource http://www.turnkey.to/tapi certified advanced coldfusion 5 developer http://www.macromedia.com/v1/handlers/index.cfm?ID=21816 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
