What is the American form of government?
June 14, 2008 by Stephen Palmer | 10 Foundational Questions | Introduction | Question #1 | Question #2 | Question #3 | The most common–and grossly incorrect–answer to this question is that we are a democracy. The right–albeit simplistic–answer is that we are a republic. A more sophisticated answer is that we are a constitutional republic. The most thorough answer came from James Madison, who said that our form of government is an “Extended Limited Commercial Federal Democratic Republic.” By “extended” he was referring to geography–never before in history has there been a republic that covered so much territory. “Limited” refers to the fact that the Constitution expressly defines what the government can and cannot do. “Commercial” refers to our national character. The Founders said that there were three main national characters–martial, religious, and commercial. Rome had a martial character, as does China. Ancient Israel had a religious character. Since religious and martial-character
