The United States of America is a Republic not a Democracy

I contend that The United States of America is both a republic and a democracy. My opponent's definition of democracy is: "1 a: government by the people ; especially : rule of the majority b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections" (. http://www.merriam-webster.com...) Let's look at this again. .. a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. I contend that the USA has very much such a system as that in the above definition. The people vote (directly) for their Local, State and Federal representatives. The people vote for some judges. The people vote for the President. The USA may not be a "pure democracy" (one where each person votes on each issue), however it is very much a democracy. Indeed, pure democracies do not exist in today's world. Wikipedia describes the USA as follows: "The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law. "[44] It is fundamentally structured as a representative democracy, though U. S. citizens residing in the territories are excluded from voting for federal officials. [45] " (. http://en.wikipedia.org...) Furthermore, the USA is ranked as the 17th most democratic country in the world and classed as a "functioning democracy" (. http://en.wikipedia.org...) My opponent's contention that democracy is mob rule finds no support in any dictionary or encyclopedia definition I have come across. Neither does his contention that a democracy does not have a constitution nor that a republic necessarily does have one. The fact that the Constitution does not mention the word "democracy" does not mean that the USA is not a democracy. It is not up to the Constitution, nor is it up the founding fathers, to decide what the definition of "democracy" is. I have read my opponent's sources. Firstly, both of his sources (devvy. com and garymcleod. org) are basically opinion-based essays. Secondly, neither of them is written by anyone who can be said to be an expert in the field. Thirdly, neither of them is in line with the dictionary definition of democracy; a definition that my opponent himself has taken the liberty to use. Thirdly, I contend that my opponent's use of those sources must be limited to his argument. In other words, they can be used to say "what I have written as my argument was also supported by someone else". They can't, however, be used as an argument in and of itself. In other words, any reasoning put in those sources by their authors does not form part of the present debate. To form such part, it would have to be written into my opponent's argument within the debate. I have demonstrated that the USA is a democracy. It fairly and squarely meets the very definition used by my opponent. Secondly, it is described by wikipedia as a democracy. Thirdly, it is 17th in the democracy index. Is the USA a republic? The definition of "republic" is as follows: "1 a (1): a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president (2): a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government b (1): a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law (2)" (. http://www.merriam-webster.com...) Again this is a source used by my opponent in his very argument. The first part of the definition distinguishes republic from a monarchy. This is in fact (I would suggest) the most common usage given to the term. The second part of the definition is virtually identical to the definition of democracy. The USA is undoubtedly a republic. I will note as a matter of interest that not every democracy is a republic. The UK is a democratic monarchy. Australia is a federal democratic monarchy. Spain is a democratic monarchy. I conclude by saying that the USA is both a republic and a democracy.