Democracy or Republic

1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.
2. A political or social unit that has such a government.
3. The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.
4. Majority rule.
5. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community

1.       a. A political order whose head of state is not a monarch
               and in modern times is usually a president.
          b. A nation that has such a political order.
2.       a. A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens
                who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.
          b. A nation that has such a political order.
3. often Republic A specific republican government of a nation: the Fourth Republic of France.
4. An autonomous or partially autonomous political and territorial unit
      belonging to a sovereign federation.
5. A group of people working as equals in the same sphere or field: the republic of letters.


[French république, from Old French, from Latin respublica : res, thing; of the people; see public

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