Assaults on the England language/"republican" v. "democracy"

[RJLipkin at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/22/2005 3:21:54 AM Eastern Standard Time,  
Mark.Scarberry at pepperdine.edu writes:

Put  another way, Republicans believe they have at least as good a claim  as
Democrats to being committed to democratic principles; given their view  that
Democrats wish to use nondemocratic courts to overturn democratic  decisions
on matters such as abortion and gay marriage, Republicans see  themselves as
more democratic than Democrats.



Mark is on to something  that transcends this thread and probably should be 
discussed on the ConlawProf  List. In my view, the terms  "democratic" and 
"democracy" have  replaced the term "republican" in popular culture, and even in 
the use of pretty  sophisticated statespersons, politicians, 
constitutionalists, and jurists.  Most of the features of republican theory--such as, 
representative democracy,  the common good, civic virtue, and so forth--have been 
absorbed by the term  "democracy." Indeed, I would venture a guess that the use of 
"republican," save  for occasional use on radio talk shows, is reserved, of 
course only for the most  part, to political philosophy. Thus, when people talk 
about self-rule or  self-government, they usually think of democracy not 
republicanism.  One  continued use--a tedious one in my view--still appears in 
discussions of  the countermajoritarian problem or when indicting the Court for  
being antidemocratic. Accusing the courts of being countermajoritarian or  
antidemocratic is met with the predictable refrain "The Constitution creates a  
republic not a democracy." In my view, this distinction, or shall I say this  
dichotomy, is typically a conversation-stopper, and forestalls the pursuit of  
the best theory of democracy. I suspect that this point, regrettably,  is still 
controversial; but in my view it should not be.
 
        Strictly speaking, few  commentators advocate pure majoritarianism or 
even pure direct
democracy. Thus, I would think "republicanism" should be granted a  
well-deserved retirement.  All the distinctions and points that some think  can only be 
articulated by using "republican" can be made through the capacious  tent of 
"democracy," and that's where they should be made.
 
Bobby
 
Robert Justin  Lipkin
Professor of Law
Widener University School of  Law
Delaware
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucla.edu/pipermail/religionlaw/attachments/20050722/3ec13e26/attachment.htm