Democratic republic - Wikipedia Democratic republic This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. ( Learn how and when to remove these template messages ) This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( November 2010 ) This article 's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia 's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. ( February 2017 ) A democratic republic is both a republic and a democracy. Overview A republic is : a sovereign state whose ultimate power rests in its citizens entitled to vote who ( directly or indirectly ) elect representatives to wield that power. A democracy is : a form of government, whose power rests equally in its citizens, who ( directly or indirectly ) elect representatives to wield that power. Absent qualification, not all citizens in a ' republic ' are necessarily entitled to vote, and absent qualification, a ' democracy ' is not necessarily sovereign. As both, a `` democratic republic '' is ideally : a sovereign state, whose ultimate power rests in its citizens, equally entitled to vote, who ( directly or indirectly ) elect representatives to wield that power. In practice, governments only approximate those ideals. Not all persons in all states are citizens and not all citizens are entitled to vote. Suffrage is commonly restricted to citizens of voting age ; and may be restricted by several other criteria. Ideally, elections ensure that governmental authority is wielded according to the will of the citizens. However, wielding power indirectly, through representatives, assures some disparity between the will of the people and the actions of government. In the best cases, citizens elect only their wisest peers as representatives -- amplifying governmental wisdom beyond that of the average citizen. However, delegating authority to representatives often yields other less desirable results. Given the lofty ideals implied in the phrase, it is unsurprising there is disagreement on how a `` democratic republic '' is best implemented -- and disagreement on whether a particular government, as implemented, is appropriately described as a `` democratic republic ''. Several countries have the term `` democratic republic '' in their official names -- colloquially known as Algeria, East Congo, Ethiopia, North Korea, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and East Timor -- all of which, with the exception of Sri Lanka and East Timor, are identified as undemocratic by the democracy index and `` not free '' by the U.S. - based, U.S. - government - funded non-governmental organization, Freedom House. In addition, the East Germany was also officially known as the German Democratic Republic, but in fact, like the Somali Democratic Republic and People 's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, was controlled by a bureaucratic regime espousing communism. Other organizations use a variety of factors to characterize the quality and equity of governance, as reflected in their various indices of freedom. The differences between states labeled `` democratic republic '' can be quite dramatic, as with the ' Democratic People 's Republic of Korea ', rated the least democratic government in the world. See also Democracy Republic People 's Republic References This article about politics is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Democratic_republic&oldid=807949827 '' Categories : Democracy Forms of government Republicanism Politics stubs Hidden categories : Articles lacking sources from November 2010 All articles lacking sources Wikipedia articles needing style editing from February 2017 All articles needing style editing All stub articles Talk About Wikipedia 한국어 Simple English ไทย Tiếng Việt 粵語 Zazaki Edit links This page was last edited on 31 October 2017, at 00 : 29. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: where does the ultimate power reside in a democracy
Answer: in its citizens