How is a Republic that is not a Democracy, not dictatorial in nature?

[richardhutnik]

Kasz216 said:

gameonbro said:

Kasz216 said:
Though generally when people talk about the USA as a republic, they talk about essential "natural" rights that the government protects that mob rule can not overturn.

Such as free speech. Which as far as i can tell is one of the things OWS wants to overturn... since to stop corporate personhood in campaign finance you would need to essentially revoke the first ammendment.

oh god a freakin coporation is not a person.  wth.  lets try this if the head of a corporation is guilty of a crime that whole corporation should go to jail from ceo to janitor.  lets start with newscorp.

see how stupid that frame of thought sound

No, a corproation is an assosiation of people.

People don't lose their rights because they decide to work together.

A corporation is a legal structure that enables its owners to suffer no legal liabilities for what the structure does.  As corporations are structured now, they outlive the lives of individuals owners, and the people in them.  Corporations employ people, and are owned by people, but they are different than a mere association of people.  Their structure of owners not facing any legal liability makes them more prone to doing bad things than say sole proprietorships or even partnerships.

Because of this, there is no way you can place them on the same footing as any mere association of people at all.  Because they are an artificial construction of the state, to get around natural constraints that are there if you take the state out of the picture.  Because of this, normal rights don't apply at all, and can be totally determined by rules states set up.  Governments can, for example, forbid them from donating any money to anything political, if it has been determined that doing such is better for the state of Democracy.  

In short, any rights corporations have is given completely and totally by the state, because they are the creation of the state.