In Plato’s The Republic, five forms of government are cited: aristocracy, democracy, oligarchy, timocracy (government of those who have a certain income), and tyranny or monarchy.
In any case, the terms republic and democracy are two different meanings, but it should be remembered that they are not incompatible.
A republic is a way of organizing a country. Its government, which can be chaired by one or two people, is endorsed by the popular parliamentary vote on behalf of the citizens and has a limited time.
The republican system was born as an alternative to the management of a country by a king indefinitely and with a hereditary throne. Such was a monarchical state.
In the case of Spain, it is organized by the system of a parliamentary monarchy.
The King fulfills the representative function of Head of State, but the Government is elected sovereignly and with a limited period of time.
When the Spanish colonies in South America in the 19th century decided to become independent from the Crown of Spain, the first modern republics arose.
There are two types of republics:
In Spain there have been two periods under a government in the form of a republic:
Democracy has its origin in Ancient Greece. In Athens, between the 6th and 5th centuries BC, citizens participated directly in decision-making on public affairs through discussion in assemblies and voting.
Etymologically, the word comes from the Greek democratia, which is made up of the terms démos, meaning people, and krátos, meaning power. Thus, democracy is the government of the people.
The fundamental mechanism for citizen participation is universal, free, and secret suffrage, through which representatives are elected for a determined period.
However, the existence of elections is not always a sufficient indicator to affirm that a government or regime is democratic.
Below we highlight the basic elements that make up a democracy in the countries:
According to the criteria of The Trust Project