I see often on this site of the terms democracy and republic being misused, and being presented as contradictory systems of governance, but they're not, what the people who misuse them are referring to is direct democracy and a constitutional republic, the first being a system where governance is decided by direct vote, the latter a system where the government powers are limited and people are represented by elected officials, put succinctly by John Adams as "a government of laws, and not of men". However the terms, correctly used, are not this contradictory dichotomy, a democracy is still a democracy regardless if it's direct or representational, it is a system where people's votes decide the course of government, as opposed to an autocratic system. A republic is any state not governed by a monarch, completely independent of whether it's democratic or not, China is a republic, Iran is a republic, Cuba is a republic, and they're not exactly shining samples of represented peoples; Australia, Great Britain, Canada and New Zealand are not republics, though they all are representative democracies, they all have Queen Elizabeth as their head of state. So before you go claiming that America is a republic, not a democracy, just remember IT'S BLOODY WELL BOTH, a representative democracy and a constitutional republic.