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Rich, how the federal government operates is spelled out in the constitution...
To some degree yes.
What is in the Constitution to stop the president from creating a Department of Space Exploration with a cabinet secretary ?
What is in the Constitution to stop the president from taking advice from foreign governments ?
The Constitution is merely a set of laws the US government (and to a small degree people in the USA) must abide by.
...however, while the constitution guarantees each State a Republican form of government, each State is free to establish its own government as long as it doesn't violate the constitution. For example, I live in Oregon and Oregon incorporates both Representative form of government and a direct democracy form of government. Oregon allows for Representatives to introduce laws and to enact laws, it also allows for "referendums" these are laws and policies that the general voting population can decide if they want them to become laws or not, in this application, the majority wins as long as it does not violate both the Constitution of Oregon or the U.S. Constitution.
You are correct.
However, AFAIK, every US state practices representative democracy - though as you say, some states do practice limited forms of direct or pure democracy where a simply majority is enough to pass a law/measure etc.