After the pledges, there were no unusual announcements, so Angela, Fiona, Benjie, Michaela, Ives, and the remaining honors students converged on Mr. Logan’s room for pre-calculus. Being seniors, they were not nearly as put off or intimidated by their teachers as in previous years. They were even inclined to be indulgent with Logan. There were three new students this year: one tall guy with the merest hint of Mayan features, a girl with light brown, wavy hair and hazel eyes, and another guy who looked Italian. Angela managed to talk to the first two before class started.
“Hi, I’m Angela Fournier,” she said by way of starting the conversation with the girl.
“I’m María Emilia Guzmán Toledo. Nice to meet you.”
“Where are you from?”
“McAllen. At least, that’s where I grew up. I was born in Mexico City but my parents moved to the U.S. when I was two. Dad’s an accountant.”
“Wow, that’s cool,” said Angela, who, having grown up in San Antonio, was used to people with all sorts of varying Mexican backgrounds, ranging from people who descended from families who settled there before any Anglos came, to recent immigrants.
She turned to the boy. “And you. What’s your name?”
“Juan Carlos Rodríguez Peña. I was born in Dallas, but my parents are from Jalapa, in Veracruz, Mexico.”
“Hi, nice to meet you, too.”
Angela started to address the other new kid, but Logan began talking. The class settled down, no longer feeling a need to cause trouble. Angela wondered whether they had become appreciably more mature as seniors. The teacher opened with a story about Sir Isaac Newton, who invented the calculus because he was frustrated with the limits of existing mathematics in explaining what we know as classical mechanics (large-scale physics). Then he proceeded to lock up his notebooks in a trunk and say nothing about his new math for twenty-seven years. Apparently, Logan thought it was supremely funny. Angela could concede that it was interesting and odd.
So far so good, the friends agreed after class. It went without saying that they were apprehensive about getting into the real math. Fiona said:
“I know. It’s like Angela said. If other seniors have made it through pre-calculus, chances are we will, too.”
“Thanks a lot,” Benjie replied with his patented tinge of sarcasm.
“Look!” said Michaela, holding up a pencil sketch of Isaac Newton working away at calculations.
After admiring the drawing with suitable exclamations, the group headed for Romano’s class. As usual, Romano was chatting comfortably with students before the bell rang. Angela headed for the other new boy and introduced herself.
“Hi,” he answered. “My name is Alcides Menotti.” He had a slight accent, unlike the other two, who spoke perfect American English. “I’m from Argentina. My parents are doctors. We came first to New York a couple of years ago and moved down here this year.”
“Wow, that is so cool!” Angela wanted to say more, but Romano called the class to order. He took roll and then started into to the lesson.
“This year we will be studying government systems: ideology, political culture, and practice. For example, our ideology in the U.S. is democratic and market-oriented. We aspire to be ruled by law, not by persons. Most countries outside North America and Europe tend to an authoritarian ideology: a person or group rules and determines what is law in practice, with little regard for whatever the constitution of the country may say. Finally, a totalitarian ideology wants to control all aspects of the life of the people, especially the information they have access to. The Nazi regime in Germany of the 1930s and 40s, and the Soviet Union, which existed from 1922 to 1991, were examples of totalitarian systems.
“In terms of their practice, or how governments actually work, they can be classified as monarchical, which means ruled by one person; oligarchical, ruled by a small group; plutocratic, ruled by the rich, and so on. Finally, the political culture has do to with the concepts and values a society has concerning what a government should be like and do. These usually persist in spite of changes of regimes, practices, and ideology. For example, one can see that the contemporary Russian government, which is democratic in name, has many similarities with the old Tsarist governments and with the communist Soviet period. Any one country can have a mixture of these different practices in its governing system.
“So, what is the U.S. like? What is its system?”
“Democratic,” offered Benjie.
“Yes it is. What makes it democratic?”
“We elect the President, senators, representatives, governors and so on. And we can write or call them and tell them how we think they should vote on laws,” Fiona offered.
“In our town,” said Angela, “we can organize a referendum to change things.”
“Yeah! And in California they are always voting on proposals for new laws at every election,” added Yves.
Romano stepped in: “Do we have any other ways to describe our governing system? Yes, Keller.”
“We are a republic, not a democracy.”
“What makes us a republic?” asked Romano.
“We don’t make the laws directly. We have a constitution and it says how laws are made and who makes them.”
“That is one definition of a republic versus a democracy,” Romano replied. “All of you pointed out real ways we practice government in the U.S. Definitions of ‘republic’ and ‘democracy’ tend to overlap quite a bit, but not entirely.” He pulled out a Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and read, “Democracy: ‘a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.’ ” He turned ahead toward the end of the dictionary and read: “Republic: ‘a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch’ – that’s a king or queen to you guys – (the class laughed) ‘…in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.’ So, yes, Keller, we are a republic and yes, Benjie, we are a democracy. We have elements of both, with the national government much like the definition of the republic and also some like a democracy. Class, what makes us a republic?”
“We are ruled by laws.”
“We have an elected president, not a king.”
“We don’t have direct rule by majority.”
“Excellent!” Romano indicated, smiling with approval. “How are we like a democracy?”
The class jumped in as before.
“The power is in the people.”
“Yeah, but we do it indirectly.”
“We elect representatives in periodic elections.”
“We have the best of both!”
“Let’s hope so,” said Romano. “We have had tension between the two systems from early on in our history. Under the Articles of Confederation, some states, like Massachusetts, had a single-chamber legislature which voted by majority, close to a direct democratic system. When they passed laws eliminating all debts, something the majority of residents in the commonwealth wanted, the wealthy became alarmed. That was one of many motives for calling for the Constitutional Convention, which resulted in a national government that was much more centralized, but indirect and removed from rule by popular majorities. Now, we have some students from other countries in this class. What is your country like? Let’s see, María.”
“Yes, professor. Please call me María Emilia, or just Emilia.”
“Sure.”
“Well, I came to the U.S. when I was