I learned today, by reading an over-sized laminated flier about the United States Government, that I have been misusing the phrase 'representative government' for at least a decade.
Well, sort of.
It seems I might have been using it correctly, as far as grammar and syntax is concerned, and likely most of the statements I made can be considered valid.
I would compare it to people who use idioms such as, "for all intensive purposes", "it's a doggie-dog world", or "separating the weak from the champs" (which I'm not sure anyone actually says, but if they did it would fit nicely into my analogy).
My understanding of representative government has been that as a citizen we elect a representative to do our governing, which isn't entirely incorrect, but I also believed the difference between a democracy and a republic to be that in a democracy the citizens are directly involved in the process of governance, voting on bills and such.
But the laminated guide to US Government would have me believe the difference between a republic and a democracy is that in a republic representatives are elected to use their best judgment to govern, whereas in a democracy representatives are elected to vote for their constituents, which is to say, senators from a blue state are expected to vote blue and red states' senators red.
So I guess the actual misunderstanding was in differentiating between a democracy and a direct democracy.
But the laminated guide to democracy seems to suggest it's anyone's guess as to whether our nation is a republic or a democracy, at least in action. I suspect this was more or less a hyperbolic assertion, meant to raise the issue of a shift in what we, as citizens, expect from our representatives; do they better serve their constituents as a partisan ballot caster or are they not only free to vote as they wish, but expected to rely on their own judgment?
I am certain I should have been made aware of this earlier.
It's not something I've ever considered.
This isn't to say I wasn't aware representatives are free to vote as they like, nor had I ignored the roar of political advisers threatening politicians who were not serving their constituents' interests with expulsion from their lofty office.
I suppose I just hadn't realized these were two different political ideologies, somewhat at odds with one another.
Sometimes when I learn things I feel a rush of accomplishment, other times I feel like an idiot.
