The United States is best described as a federal constitutional representative democracy and a constitutional federal republic. This means:

• It is a representative democracy , where citizens vote for government officials who represent their ideas and concerns, rather than directly voting on all laws themselves

• It is a republic , meaning the people elect representatives to enact laws and govern on their behalf, with an emphasis on the government being accountable to the public good

• The system is federal , with power shared between the national government and state governments, each having their own constitutions and branches of government

• It operates under a constitutional framework , where the powers of government and representatives are limited and defined by the U.S. Constitution

In practice, the U.S. combines democratic principles-such as popular sovereignty and broad voting rights-with republican structures like elected representatives and separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches

. Thus, the U.S. is often called a federal constitutional republic or a federal constitutional representative democracy , reflecting its hybrid nature of democracy and republicanism under a constitutional and federal system