Like Living in a Communist/Fascist Country?

[Lu]

Actually nowadays with a few token countries, almost every country in the world is a democracy.

That completely depends on how you define 'democracy'. If you say 'Democracy=country in which elections are held regurlarly with a certain degree of fairness' then even the PRC is a democracy, and Belorussia, Libya, and South Africa before the apartheid was abolished, and North Korea. That indeed makes quite a number of democracies.

Republic - a representative democracy in which the people's elected deputies (representatives), not the people themselves, vote on legislation.

This would make the Netherlands a republic.

[gougou]

This would make the Netherlands a republic.

Yeah, the definitions are not very exclusive. Here's the one for democracy:

Democracy - a form of government in which the supreme power is retained by the people, but which is usually exercised indirectly through a system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed.

Now if I understand it correctly, this means that a democracy usually is a republic?

[mr.stinky]

a democracy is where decisions are made relatively directly by the general population

(or at least the registered voters) through referendums and plebescites.

a republic is where the decisions are delegated to representatives elected by the

electorate.

a democratic republic is usually a dictatorship or authoritarian regime.

[Shadowdh]

a democratic republic is usually a dictatorship or authoritarian regime.

As I go off to vote today I will keep this in mind when thinking of tony smear... uh I mean blair... also does this mean that the UK is a republic...??

[Lu]

a democracy is where decisions are made relatively directly by the general population (or at least the registered voters) through referendums and plebescites.

a republic is where the decisions are delegated to representatives elected by the

electorate.

a democratic republic is usually a dictatorship or authoritarian regime.

The confusion is only getting bigger.

So according to these definitions, there are no democracies in this world (that I can think of) except for maybe Switzerland; both the UK and Holland are republics, not democracies; and North Korea is a dictatorship. Well, at least that one is correct.