User blog comment:Reximus55/Government Series - Introduction/@comment-32656-20131017090752/@comment-7576024-20131017092344

Just some more info on this - our Founders were quite clear on the issue of Democracy vs Republic. James Madison (Favorite President #3) was quite adamant about the use of the term "Republic."

From Encyclopaedia Brittanica, quoting Madison in the Federalist Papers - "The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic, are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater the number of citizens, and greater sphere of country, over which the latter may be extended.” In short, for Madison, democracy meant direct democracy, and republic meant representative government.

Also, see this nice chart - http://www.diffen.com/difference/Democracy_vs_Republic