eli5: What is a Republic? As in, the United States is a Republic?

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I’m almost 50. I said the pledge of allegiance every day. Our education system is so messed up that they didn’t bother to explain what it meant.

Hell, I’m old enough that I also sang ‘Zippity Doo Dah ‘ every day also. Plus, we had the strap in school. Teachers and principals taking their anger out on 10 years olds. That was weird.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

A republic has two features.

a. It has a body of representatives (two in the US, the Senate and the House) which has the legislative power (the power to make laws).

b. It has a head of state that’s not a king.

Note that these representatives do not have to be elected by the people (unlike a democracy), but can be there as representatives of The Party (as they are in China, a one-party state) or the representatives of wealthy and prominent families (such as the medieval and renaissance merchant republics).

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