What are the most important differences between a democracy and a republic?

Although these terms are often used interchangeably and sound similar, they don't quite mean the same thing. In a democracy, each member has a single vote that they contribute to decide the outcome of a question or event. For example, if you and six friends were trying to decide between pizza or Chinese food, you could each cast a vote and whichever got the most votes would be what you are eating for dinner.

In a republic, people use their votes to elect representatives who will make decisions on their behalf. In this case, you and your six friends might vote to elect two representatives who will decide whether you're going to eat pizza or Chinese food. Theoretically, those representatives would listen to what you have to say and what you want, then they would sit down together to make a decision. You still have a vote, but rather than use it to decide the outcome, you're using it to elect someone else who will decide the outcome based on what you want.

In the context of political systems, a democracy counts each vote from the participating members, whereas a republic counts the votes from the elected representatives. Most often, these two concepts are blended to produce what's referred to as a democratic republic. In the United States, for example, the people have a considerable amount of power because they elect the representatives who will act on their behalf. Those representatives then get together to run the government, wherein their vote is supposed to reflect the desires of the people they represent.