We live in a constitutional republic

Common card · No. 440414

"We live in a constitutional republic", "the U.S. is a republic, not a democracy", and variations of these phrases are political slogans associated, since the mid-20th century, with some aspects of conservatism in the United States. Though presented by their proponents as descriptive of the design of the American state since founding, the claims are entirely absent from revolutionary-era writing and commentary, with their earliest recorded appearance dated to 1836. They were catalyzed as popular refrains in the 1960s by candymaker Robert Welch and, after a period of declining usage, reinvigorated in popular commentary around 2010. Scholars agree the assertions do not represent a conventional understanding of comparative politics, American constitutional law, or United States history and may originate in a misunderstanding of political science terminology.

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