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

Question

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.

In: 27

Answer 1

It’s simply the Latin for “the people’s thing” (res publica) and is a synonym for the Greek “demokratia” (the people’s rule). For some reason people want republic to mean a representative democracy, and while it can be, it doesn’t need to be, as republics can also have direct democracy components (see California).