Republics and democracies

Democracy is the Athenian way, right, where all the members of the population (δῆμος/dêmos) take part in the governance (κρατία/kratía) of the state, each watching out for their own particular interests no doubt; the republic is the Roman way, where the business (res) of the state is public (publica), common to everybody. A democracy is about people and what they do, a republic is about a thing and what it is.

From the documentary 1981: Un été en rose et noir by Virginie Linhart. Found at Telle est la Télé.

Or is this formulation polluted by an idea, bizarre and totally ahistorical, that American party names, Democrat and Republican, have a meaning? I'm thinking of today's parties, with the Democrats concerned with identity politics and conflict resolution, under the assumption that different people are going to want different things that must inevitably clash, and [jump]

Socialisme!!

First reaction to the Hollande election, by Loïc Sécheresse for Libération.

"Chuis pu président" = "Je ne suis plus président" in Sarko's ugly swallowed-up diction. The joke turns on the difference between "faute de" ("mistake in" a given discipline) and "faute à" ("fault of" a given agent), with the suggestion that it's one of the subtleties where the (ex!) president tends to screw up. Goodbye, Sarko, in any case.