What is the difference between a democratic government and a republic?
There is not necessarily a difference. A republic government is democratic by default. Democracy refers to a system where the people decide what is happening. This can be direct decisions, like with a referendum, or it can be a representative democracy, where the people elect ‘experts’ who represent them. Most states have some kind of representative democracy, where the people elect a leader and/or parliament. Countries like Switzerland also have some direct democracy, where you can initiate a referendum on an issue when you have collected enough signatures of supporters. A republic is a kind of state that is governed by an elected president. Other alternatives are monarchies or dictatorship. Also monarchies can be democratic, since the monarch (king/queen) usually has no political power, and performs more or less a ceremonial function. Every law has to be signed by the monarch, but the monarch has to follow the verdict of the parliament. Examples of democratic monarchies are the Unite
