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> Short answer: yes. We are a democratic republic but most people think of us as a direct democracy.

Can someone point me out as why Americans differentiate republic from direct democracy? I reckon than in most of the world these words don't mean opposites. Republic means just "not a monarchy/aristocracy" where I live, and I reckon in most of the world.

(This is a genuine question, maybe there is a reason for the American usage of the term)

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Generally it's called a republic if there is representative government, i.e. if you have a senate or a congress. Presumably by direct democracy people mean voting directly on issues, in which case I'm not sure there's any state of a significant size implementing that particular form of government.

> Generally it's called a republic if there is representative government

No, if there's an elected representative government, it's generally a representative democracy. Even when (as in the case of the UK) it's also a Constitutional monarchy, and so not a republic of any kind.