Why do some people say the U.S. is a democracy?
Democracies are political systems where people have a direct or indirect effect on policy, either by voting on policy themselves (direct effect, ergo direct democracy) or by voting for people who themselves will vote on policy (indirect effect, ergo indirect democracy).The United States is a Presidential Republic which is a form of indirect democracy and why people correctly assert that the US is a democracy. Presidential Republics, which include the United States and large parts of Latin America, are governments where all citizens over a certain age can vote for political parties that sit in Congress as well as voting for a President who is the chief executive. In Presidential Republics, there is a clear delineation between the legislative and executive branches.