America's Form of Govt.

George Washington impersonator educating teens about America

What form of Government does America have?

What type of Government did our founding fathers establish?

If you answered Democracy to these questions, you answered with the vast majority of people. I believe the answer to the first question is Oligarchy and the second is Republic. Let me explain.

The misunderstanding arises, I believe, from the mistaken belief that the form of government describes the method in which a nation's leaders are chosen. It does not. It is rather a description of the ultimate source of authority a nation looks to for its government.

Government appears in 5 basic forms:
1. Anarchy: rule by none
2. Monarchy/Dictatorship: rule by one
3. Oligarchy: rule by committee/elite
4. Democracy: rule by majority
5. Republic: rule by law

Anarchy is rare and always short-lived. Chaos results in a vacuum, opening the door to any who are able to gain support or seize power, creating a Monarchy or Oligarchy. This is how Hitler was able to come to power in post World War I Germany.

A true Monarchy is also rare and short-lived. This is primarily because it is rather easy for another power-seeking individual to dispose of the monarch/dictator and replace him.

Oligarchy is the most common form of government. Most governments that appear to be Monarchies/Dictatorships are actually Oligarchies. This is why when the leader is deposed he is always replaced so quickly and easily. He is simply a "front man" for the Oligarchy.

Most often America is described as a Democracy. I hear this all the time by students, Presidents, media and others. I will let the founders themselves speak on this point.


"...democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they are violent in their deaths."--James Madison


"The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity."--Alexander Hamilton


“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”--John Adams


"The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived."--John Quincy Adams

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship."--Alexander Tyler


Clearly, our founders did not intend to establish what they, in their own words, saw as a dangerous and reprehensible form of government.

The four forms of government that we have mentioned so far look to men as their source of authority. There is one remaining form that stands apart from the rest. A Republic.

“Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.”--Chief Justice John Marshall

A Republic is rule by law. Lex Rex, Law is King. Under a Republic, all men are equally under the law, from the lowliest commoner to the most powerful politician. In America's case, this means the Constitution and it's preface, the Declaration of Independence.

Our country has been in a steady decline as we have turned away from God and away from the principles our nation was founded on. We need first to turn our hearts toward God. Then we need to educate ourselves on those principles given to us in his Word--principles our nation was founded on-- elect representatives who understand those principles, and teach those principles to our children.

When asked what type of government the people had been given, Benjamin Franklin answered, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

Can we?