A 

democratic republic is a form of government operating on principles adopted from a republic and

a democracy. Rather than being a cross between two entirely separate systems, democratic
republics may function on principles shared by both republics and democracies.
Common definitions of the terms democracy and republic often feature overlapping concerns,
suggesting that many democracies function as republics, and many republics operate on democratic
principles, as shown by these definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary:

 Republic: "A state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected
representatives..."[1]
 Democracy: "A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible
members of a state, typically through elected representatives."[2]
Eugene Volokh of the UCLA School of Law notes that the United States exemplifies the varied
nature of a constitutional republic—a country where some decisions (often local) are made by direct
democratic processes, while others (often federal) are made by democratically elected
representatives.[3] As with many large systems, US governance is incompletely described by any
single term. It also employs the concept, for instance, of a constitutional democracy in which a court
system is involved in matters of jurisprudence.[3]
As with other democracies, not all persons in a democratic republic are necessarily citizens, and not
all citizens are necessarily entitled to vote.[4] Suffrage is commonly restricted by criteria such
as voting age.[5] and sometimes by felony or imprisonment status.

History[edit]
In the US, the notion that a republic was a form of democracy was common from the time of its
founding, and the concepts associated with representative democracy (and hence with a democratic
republic) are suggested by John Adams (writing in 1784):
No determinations are carried, it is true, in a simple representative democracy, but by consent of the
majority or their representatives.[6]
Historically, some inconsistency around the term is frequent. The Republic of China (Taiwan) claims
to be the oldest of Asia's democratic republics, though its recent history of democratic process is
largely linked only to Taiwan.[7] Likewise, Africa's oldest democratic republic, Liberia (formed in
1822), has had its political stability rocked by periodic violence and coups.[8]

Global use of the term[edit]

Many countries that use the term "democratic republic" in their official names (such as Algeria,
[9]
 Congo-Kinshasa,[10] Ethiopia,[11] North Korea,[12] Laos,[13] and Nepal[13]) are considered undemocratic
"hybrid regimes" or "authoritarian regimes" by the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy
Index[14] and "not free" by the U.S.-based, U.S.-government-funded non-governmental
organization Freedom House.[15]
In addition, East Germany was also officially known as the German Democratic Republic, but, like
the Somali Democratic Republic,[16] the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the People's Democratic
Republic of Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the People's Democratic Republic
of Ethiopia,[17] was controlled by a bureaucratic government espousing Marxism–Leninism.
[18]
 Incidentally, the Democratic Republic of Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the
Sudan were non-Marxist socialist dictatorships that existed during the Cold War.
There are also countries which use the term "Democratic Republic" in the name and have a good
track of general election and were rated "flawed democracy" or "full democracy" in the Democracy
Index, such as the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and
Príncipe and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.