A Republic is what was envisioned by our founding fathers and the intent outlined by the [final draft of the] Articles of the Constitution. The founding fathers railed against a democracy, referring to it as "tyranny of the majority."

An oligarchy is what we actually have. Primarily because we're all a bunch of pussies and haven't taken it back yet.

As a side note, even our founding fathers could not agree on what it should be, even during the time of the framing of the Constitution. Alexander Hamilton was a monarchist and actually asked George Washington to be our first King. Thankfully, ol' George refused. Hamilton subsequently dubbed his political party, one of the first two parties, "the Federalist" party, though it was in fact the polar opposite. The other party at the time was then, naturally, dubbed the "Anti-federalist" party, though it did in fact support a Federalist government. Makes sense, right?