What is the difference between a republic and a democracy?
Short answerA republic has no hereditary monarch, while democracy describes the exercise and distribution of political power. A country can be both.
NotesA republic describes a state without a hereditary monarch, while democracy concerns how political authority is distributed and exercised. The terms can therefore apply to the same country without meaning the same thing. A republic can be democratic, and the label alone does not establish how representative its institutions are. The distinction matters here because political labels influence the imagined ideological case for war without settling it by themselves.