Why doesn the Constitutions Guarantee Clause forbid Direct Democracy?
The Constitution does not explicitly forbid or allow direct democracy; the issue is unresolved. Specifically, Article IV, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution (the Guaranty Clause) states that: “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.” Note that this Solution shall check and remedy representative democracy, not supersede it. There has been continuous argument about what the Founding Fathers intended by the wording of the Guarantee clause: • On one side it is argued that the words “republican form of government” should be narrowly construed to exclude any form of direct democracy, in effect saying that the U.S. is a republic and is not a democracy. Support for and against this position can be found in various writings by the Founding Fathers. • On the other si
