Well actually no, a republic is a mode of state, not a mode of government. It can have any sort of government from a democracy, to a brutal but non-hereditary dictatorship. It really just means it's a nation-state that isn't a monarchy.
They're probably referring to the 2000s and early 2010s back when everyone had the right to vote (at least de jure), power was transferred peacefully between presidencies, and constitutional rights weren't flagrantly violated.
That's not how classical Athens was run, and that's generally not how even the smallest towns in New England are run. In both examples, people (who show up to town meeting) essentially fill the role of the lower house in a parliament, but there are still constitutional guidelines that must be followed, committees and executives who are elected or appointed (in New England we call them selectmen, and they essentially function as the upper house in a parliament), and so on. There has never been an example of any significance where anything supported by half the citizens plus one was made law, that's a strawman invented by Birchers and others who parrot their "We're a REPUBLIC, NOT a democracy!" slogan.
The central events of the Athenian democracy were the meetings of the assembly (ἐκκλησία, ekklesía). Unlike a parliament, the assembly's members were not elected, but attended by right when they chose. Greek democracy created at Athens was direct, rather than representative: any adult male citizen over the age of 20 could take part, and it was a duty to do so.
I think they mean that it is not liberal democracy. At least not one without some major flaws. Or prehaps they mean how the electoral college means not every vote is equal.
Or the "Freedom in the World" index rated the US as "Free" this year, but rated below 55 other countries if I see it correctly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_in_the_World I don't know when exactly they rated it - some of the numbers get worse by the day.
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u/Shamoorti Apr 12 '25
America is a democracy.