Feature Column: The Democracy Problem

By R. Josiah Magnuson

The Constitution of the United States, Article IV, Section 4 states, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government.” Why not democracy?

Karl Marx, in The Communist Manifesto, Section II declared the climactic goal of Communist revolution to be “to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class; to win the battle of democracy.”

The Founding Fathers generally expressed distain for democracy. Benjamin Rush, for example, referred to democracy as “mob rule.” James Madison declared that “democracies have ever been found inconsistent with personal security or the rights of property.”

Yet many Christian conservatives believe that the solution to the decline of morality in this nation is promotion of democracy!

Just what is democracy? It is the reign of the omnipotent Majority. It is government by changing public policy and demagoguery. It is actually THE RULE OF RELATIVISM, and as such, becomes merely popular dictatorship!

A republic, on the other hand, is a government created by the people (or someone truly acting in the interest of the people) for the protection of their rights. The word republic has of course been defined in various ways. However, it is apparent in true republics that although the opinion of the majority is respected, individual rights are supreme. For instance, the Founding Fathers often referred to republics as "the rule of laws and not men."

Rights are, by nature, enduring and absolute. Therefore, they must be granted by a source from outside man; that is, man’s Creator, God. Such rights are indeed implicit to His Law: the Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, and various other parts of the Bible.

A republic is therefore THE RULE OF THE LAW OF THE CREATOR. It is separation of powers, checks and balances, and perhaps most importantly, limited government. In a republic, no dictator or even Majority class can change the individual's unalienable rights as given in God's absolute Law!

Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The people are inherently independent of all but moral law.” This fact is recognized in republics, but the converse is true in democracies. In democracies, the people are “freed” from God, only to be chained to the arbitrary whims of those in power (majority).

Clearly, “republic” and “democracy” are not simply two forms of free government. They are the difference between a liberty in law and a liberty from law.