The terms "republic" and "democracy" are nearly as flexible as a rubber snake, and therefore about as useful in serious discussion. Until everyone at the table agrees on what they mean, you can get lots of shouting accomplished by saying this or that country is or isn't a democracy, or is or isn't a republic. But little of worth will be accomplished, again, if they aren't nailed down first.

Many people -- particularly conservatives in the USA -- like to use "democracy" to mean "a regime in which every law is voted on directly by all the people." Not sure why; there has never been such a beast in the history of the world, nor will there likely ever be one. Nor is it clear to me why, in a "democracy," you couldn't have a hierarchy of laws in which the "higher" laws (comparable, say, to the US constitution) take a larger "majority" to change than the lower laws, and thus if freedom of religion is a higher law, say one requiring a 75% majority to change, and the populace voted 60-40 on outlawing christianity, the ban would fail, because it contradicted the higher law. Thus your author with the cute pen-name must be thinking of adding to his definition of democracy, "and every law is passed with a simple majority." And how THIS can be justified as part of the definition of "democracy" is completely beyond my ability to fathom.

Presumably "republic" means some sort of representative government. If I were as pedantic as this Semperfinite fellow (always of fixed size? does this refer to his private parts?) I might say that since the Roman senators were not popularly elected, and this was the first example of a Republic, then a country in which the representatives are popularly elected (e.g. the USA, UK, etc) is not really a Republic. But I'm not that pedantic.

Speaking for myself, I would say the USA is a Republic because it is a representative government, and it is a Democracy because the representives are popularly elected. As someone has once said, it's a democratic Republic (or, to vice the versa, a republican Democracy).

Gotta run to a meeting. Great questions, Colwyn, and thanks for getting us back on track!

Alex