Constitutional Republic

Constitutional republic is a state where the head of state and

other officials are elected as representatives of the people, and

must govern according to existing constitutional law that limits the

government’s power over citizens. In a constitutional republic,

executive, legislative, and judicial powers are separated into

distinct branches and the will of the majority of the population is

tempered by protections for individual rights so that no individual

or group has absolute power. The fact that a constitution exists

that limits the government’s power makes the state constitutional.

That the head of state and other officials are chosen by election,

rather than inheriting their positions, and that their decisions are

subject to judicial review makes a state republican.

Constitutional republics were first advocated in the 18th and

19th centuries by liberals, who were engaged at the time in a

political and ideological conflict against conservative supporters

of traditional monarchy. Since the beginning of the 20th century,

constitutional republics have entered the political mainstream and

have gathered the support of many other ideologies in addition to

liberalism.

The United States of America is one of the oldest republics in

the world. According to James Woodburn in The American

Republic and Its Government, “the constitutional republic with its

limitations on popular government is clearly involved in the

Constitution, as seen in the election of the President, the election

of the Senate and the appointment of the Supreme Court.” That is,

the ability of the people to choose officials in government is

checked by not allowing them to elect Supreme Court justiceshowever

in reality, such justices are appointed by the popularly

elected president, and approved by the popularly elected Senate.

Woodburn says that in a republic, as distinguished from a

democracy, the people are not only checked in choosing officials

but also in making laws. A Bill of Rights exists in the U.S.

Constitution which protects certain individual rights. The

individual rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights cannot be voted

away by the majority of citizens if they wished to oppress a

minority who does not agree with the restrictions on liberty that

they wish to impose. To eliminate these rights would require

government officials overcoming constitutional checks as well as

a two-thirds majority vote of Congress and ratification by threefourths

of the States in order to amend the Constitution.

A constitutional republic is a form of democracy, but not all

democracies are constitutional republics. For example, though the

head of state is not elected in a monarchy, it may still be a liberal

democracy if there is a parliament with elected representatives that

govern according to constitutional law protecting individual rights

(called a constitutional democratic monarchy). Also, a

representative democracy may or may not be a constitutional

republic. For example, “the United States relies on representative

democracy, but its system of government is much more complex

than that. It is not a simple representative democracy, but a

constitutional republic in which majority rule is tempered by

minority rights protected by law.”

Дата добавления: 2015-10-16