I Have a Few Questions

[Jim Page]

Kate, Answers.com has an interesting and informative article about constitutional democracy that you might find illuminating. Here's a quote:
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The government of the United States is called a constitutional democracy. It is a democracy because the government is based on the consent of the people. Further, the government operates according to the principle of majority rule. The people, for example, elect their representatives and senators in Congress by majority vote; and the members of Congress make laws according to majority rule.

The popular and democratic government of the United States, however, is limited by the higher law of the Constitution in order to secure, as the Declaration of Independence says, the “unalienable rights” of every person. These legal limitations on the people's government make the United States a constitutional democracy, not an unlimited democracy.

A constitutional democracy, then, is government by majority rule with protection of minority rights. It is democratic because of its foundations of popular consent and majority rule. It is constitutional because the power of the majority to rule is limited by a supreme law.
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Winston Churchill once said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Churchill wrote some wonderful histories that are worth a look.

Enjoy the journey--

--Jim