Is the United States an indirect democracy or a republic?

The answer to this question is going to depend almost
completely on how your book defines a republic.  As the link below tells
us,

there is
no consensus among scholars ... as to exactly what a republic
is.

Given this fact, it is
very hard to say if the United States is a republic or an indirect
democracy.

In many ways, the United States is an indirect
democracy.  The people of the United States do not tend to vote directly on proposed
laws.  Instead, they elect representatives who do vote directly on the proposals.  This
is how an indirect democracy works.

However, by some
definitions, the US is a republic and not an indirect democracy.  By those definitions,
a democracy is one in which the people have absolute control.  By comparison, a republic
is a form of government in which there is a constitution or some other sort of basic law
that limits what the people can do.  By this definition, the US is clearly a republic
and not a democracy because there are limits on what sorts of laws the people can
make.

It is very difficult, then, to answer this question
without knowing exactly what definition of "republic" we are using.  In layman's terms,
the US is both a republic and an indirect democracy.  However, depending on the exact
definition used, one can arrive at different answers to this
question.