How and to what extent does the US constitution force state legislatures to be democratic?
<p>So there are a lot of provisions related to voting on a federal level, e.g. the electoral college is described in article II (interestingly, clause 2 says: "Each State shall appoint, <em>in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct</em>, a Number of Electors […]") and the 17th amendment prescribes the direct election of senators in each state ("[…] two Senators from each State, elected by the people […]"). Now what about the state legislatures themselves? Is there some provision I missed?</p>

<p>In short: Could Hawaii become a somewhat absolutistic kingdom again and still remain a U.S. state? ;)</p>

<p>Article IV, Section 4 says this:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government</p>
</blockquote>

<p>That would mean no state can be a kingdom.</p>

<p><b>PS in response to comments:</b> This section does not mean the federal government is guaranteeing to the states that the <b>federal</b> government will be republican in form; rather the federal government is required to guarantee that the <b>state</b> governments will be republican in form.  That is done when Congress looks over a proposed state constitution before admitting a proposed new state to the Union.  That has not always been done, since in particular it was not done in Kentucky.  (On February 4, 1791, Congress passed an act saying the district of Kentucky in the state of Virginia would be admitted as a new state, of course with the consent of the Virginia legislature that had been expressed in 1789, but would not be admitted until almost 16 more months passed.  The politicians of Kentucky had requested the long delay so they could use the time to negotiate compromises on details of their state constitution, which hadn't been written yet.  That was the first time Congress passed a law admitting a new state, but because of the delay, Kentucky became the 15th state rather than the 14th (Vermont is the 14th).)</p>

united-states us-constitution constitutional-law