A republic, not a democracy

The slogan "a republic, not a democracy" is used by some democracy supporters to alert listeners to the particular kind of democracy which the United States Constitution provides.

The distinction is between direct democracy in which everyone votes, and the majority rules; and a representative democracy in which executives are elected to rule the people.

The phrase "not a democracy" is unfortunate because its meaning within the slogan is "not a direct democracy" but it can easily be taken as "not a democracy at all". Critics of the US, who want to accuse it falsely of not being democratic love to exploit this ambiguity.