Democracy as political organization

[Athena]

Democracy as political organization, is a little different from democracy as religion. The political organization of the US is a combination of “kingship, aristocracy, democracy”, and the three branches excutive, legislative and judicial are suppose to function as checks and balance. The balance can be throw off, as happened in Rome and the US. Cicero is best known for his efforts to defend the Republic of Rome, from men such as Ceasar.

It is really hard to discuss what the US does in the name of democracy, and why there is resistance to the US style democratic Republic around the world, without a better understanding of these terms and government forms. The spirit, culture and actions of the US are very changed because an understanding of such matters has been lost to the US, since liberal education was replaced with education for technology for military and industrial purpose, and the US is no longer the democracy that was defended in previous wars. So can we dig a little deeper into an understanding of “that for which the US stands” and what the “Spirit of American” is about?

http://www.indopedia.org/Classical_definition_of_republic.html

Republic is formed from two Latin words res (thing) and publica (public); it literally means ‘the public thing(s)’. In the Latin context, it means ‘affairs affecting the state’, ‘the state’ itself, or ‘the constitution’ of the state".(1) The Latin word republic is similar in meaning to the Greek word politea. Both words constitute the meaning of state; the state being one that is made up of different classes of people and all involved in the governing of the polity under a constitution. Simply stated: a republic is a “mixed constitutional government”.

A republic, in the classical form, is a type of government that is made up of a mixture of elements from three other types of government: monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. There is the Spartan model which is a tri-political government of kings, gerousia (aristocracy) and Ephors (democratic body). There is the Roman model that has a civilian head, and an aristocratic body which is the Senate. It is marked by a bicameral legislative body (the upper house being aristocratic) and by a written constitution that marks out the duties and responsibilities of the different bodies. A classical republic is considered by its proponents to be the best compromise between the interests of the aristocracy (or of the wealthy elite) and those of the people.

The Greek aspect
“Politea” is a Greek word used by Aristotle in his book, Politics, to describe a republican form of government.

Aristotle records that “some people assert that the best constitution must be a combination of all the forms of constitution, therefore praise the constitution of Sparta.” (6) He further argues that the better the constitution is mixed, the more permanent it is. (7) The definition he gives for this kind of government is a “politean”; the form intermediate between them which is termed a republic, (mesi de touton in kalousi politeian) for the government is constituted from the class that bears arms. (8) Again, Aristotle states that constitutional government is, to put it simply, a mixture of oligarchy and democracy. (9)

Polybius (as also Plato and Aristotle) distinguishes three types of governments: “kingship, aristocracy, democracy”. Furthermore, like Aristotle, he goes on to state that the best constitution is that “which partakes of all these three elements”. (10) “The first to construct a constitution–that of Sparta–on this principle”, Lycurgus, with some inspiration from his fellow Doric brothers in Crete (11) created a government that combined an hereditary kingship with body of advisors from the aristocracy and another that represented the rest of the people (the democracy), all being checks and balances on each other.

[1Samuel8]

@Athena

So can we dig a little deeper into an understanding of “that for which the US stands” and what the “Spirit of American” is about?

No, we can not dig because nobody can agree on any of those concepts let alone any evidence that those concepts exist at all.

Around the world, I believe most people do not care about the internal workings of the US style of democracy. Most people just care about the Americans who come to visit them or do commercial trade.