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Republic
*** Shopping-Tip: Republic
:''This article concentrates on the several
forms of government of real states and countries that have been termed '''republic''', for all other uses see:
republic (disambiguation)''
In a broad definition, a '''republic''' is a
state whose political organization rests on the principle that the citizens or
electorate constitute the ultimate root of legitimacy and
sovereignty. Several definitions, including that of the ''
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica'', stress the importance of autonomy and the '
rule of law' as part of the requirements for a Republic.{{ref|definition}} Nonetheless, in practice most nations that do not have a hereditary monarchy call themselves a
Republic, and in its broadest sense the idea of a Republic can include almost any form of government that is not a
Monarchy.
The detailed organization of republics' governments can vary widely in practice. The first section of this article gives an overview of the distinctions that characterise different ''types'' of non-fictional republics. In addition, many forms of national governments that call themselves "republics" are actually some other form of government, such as
oligarchies,
hereditary monarchies or simple
dictatorships.
The second section of the article gives short profiles of some of the most influential republics, by way of illustration. A more comprehensive
List of republics appears in a separate article.
The third section is about how republics are approached as state organisations in
political science: in political theory and political science, the term "republic" is generally applied to a
state where the government's
political power depends solely on the consent, however nominal, of the people governed, along with some form of written
constitution and limitations against
absolute power by a single individual or a combination of individuals, even when such limitations are not effective.
Characteristics of republics
Heads of state
If the head of state of a republic is at the same time the president this is called a
presidential system (example:
United States). In
Parliamentary system parliamentary and
semi-presidential systems the head of state is not the same person as the
head of government, in that case the latter is usually termed
prime minister or
premier. Depending on whether the president has any specific tasks (for example, advisory role in the formation of a government after an election) this can leave the president with little more than a ceremonial function. The Prime Minister is responsible for managing the policies and the central government. Depending on the rules for appointing the president and the leader of the government, it is possible for some of these countries to have a situation where the president and the prime minister have opposing political convictions: in
France, when the members of the ruling
cabinet (government) cabinet and the president come from opposing political factions, this situation is called
cohabitation. In countries such as
Germany and
India, however, the president needs to be strictly non-partisan.
In some countries, like
Switzerland and
San Marino, the head of state is not a single person but a committee (council) of several persons holding that office. The
Roman Republic had two
consuls, elected for a year by the Comitia Centuriata, or gathering of People. During the year of their consulship each consul would in turn be head of state for a month at a time, thus alternating the office of
consul major (the consul in power) and of
consul suffectus (not-ruling consul, however with some supervision on the work of the consul major) for their joint term.
Republics can be led by a head of state that has many of the characteristics of a monarch: not only do some republics install a president for life, and invest such president with powers beyond what is usual in a
representative democracy, examples such as the post-1970
Syria Syrian Arab Republic show that such a presidency can apparently be made hereditary. Historians disagree when the Roman Republic turned into
Imperial Rome: the reason is that the first
Roman Emperor Emperors were given their head of state powers gradually in a government system that in appearance did not originally much differ from the Roman Republic{{ref|Rome}}.
Also, if taking the broad definition of republic above ("In a broad definition a '''republic''' is a
state or
country that is led by people that don't base their
political power on any principle beyond the control of the people living in that state or country."), countries usually qualified as monarchies can have many traits of a republic in terms of form of government. The political power of monarchs can be non-existent, limited to a purely ceremonial function or the "control of the people" can be exerted to the extent that they appear to have the power to have their monarch replaced by another one{{ref.html">Saudi Arabia) 21st-century monarchies tend to be relatively
liberal.html">liberalism | liberal and
democracy democratic, and
dictator dictators prefer to adopt titles such as "
President for Life" rather trying to become monarchs.
The often assumed "mutual exclusiveness" of monarchies and republics as forms of government{{ref|Prince}} is thus not to be taken too literally, and largely depends on circumstances:
*
Autocracy Autocrats might try to give themselves a democratic tenure by calling themselves president (or
princeps or
princeps senatus in the case of
Ancient Rome), and the form of government of their country "republic", instead of using a monarchic based terminology{{ref|Zaire}}.
* For full-fledged
representative democracy representative democracies ultimately it generally does not make all that much difference whether the head of state is a monarch or a president, nor, in fact, whether these countries call themselves a monarchy or a republic. Other factors, for instance, religious matters (see next section) can often make a greater distinguishing mark when comparing the forms of government of actual countries.
For this reason, in
political science the several definitions of "republic", which in such a context invariably indicate an "ideal" form of government, do not always exclude monarchy: the evolution of such definitions of "republic" in a context of
political philosophy is treated in
republicanism. However, such theoretical approaches appear to have had no real influence on the everyday use (that is: apart from a scholar or "insider" context) of the terminology regarding republics and monarchies{{ref|EverydayLanguage}}.
The least that can be said is that
Anti-Monarchism, the opposition to monarchy as such, did not always play a critical role in the creation and/or management of republics. For some republics, choosing whether to have a monarch as the head of state is a practical rather than an ideological consideration. For example, a state would not create a monarchy if there were no monarchial candidate readily available{{ref.html">the Enlightenment the choice was always deliberate: ''republics'' created in that period inevitably had anti-monarchial characteristics. For the
United States the opposition to the
British Monarchy played an important role, as did the overthrow of the French Monarchy in the creation of the
first French Republic. By the time of the creation of the
Fifth Republic.html">French Fifth Republic|Fifth Republic in that country "anti-monarchist" tendencies were barely felt. The relations of that country to other countries made no distinctions whether these other countries were "monarchies" or not.
Role of religion
{{ref|Religion}}Before several
Reformation movements established themselves in Europe, changes in the religious landscape rarely had any relation to the form of government adopted by a country. For instance the transition from
polytheism to
Christianity in
Ancient Rome maybe had brought new rulers, but no change in the idea that monarchy was the obvious way to rule a country. Similarly, late
Middle Age republics, like
Venice, emerged without questioning the religious standards set by the
Roman Catholic church. However, the Catholic Church itself briefly adopted a republican institution when it was offered by the Conciliarist movement as a solution to the Great Schism (rival papacies) during the late 14th century. The ecumenical Council of Constance in 1415 deposed three of the rival popes, elected a fourth, and extracted a promise from him that future such councils would continue to be called by future popes at regular intervals. (The Pope's concession to conciliarism did not last very long, but the English Parliament would not extract anything like it from its kings until the Puritan Revolution of the 1640s.)
This would change, for instance, by the
cuius regio, eius religio from the
Treaty of Augsburg (
1555): this treaty, applicable in the
Holy Roman Empire and affecting the numerous (city-)states of
Germany, ordained citizens to follow the religion of their ruler, whatever Christian religion that ruler chose - apart from
Calvinism (which remained forbidden by the same treaty). In France the king abolished the relative tolerance towards non-Catholic religions resulting from the
Edict of Nantes (
1598), by the
Edict of Fontainebleau (
1685). In the
United Kingdom and in
Spain the respective monarchs had each established their favourite brand of Christianity, so that by the time of
the Enlightenment in Europe (including the depending
colony colonies) there was not a single
absolute monarchy that tolerated another religion than the official one of the state.
=Republics reducing state religion impact
=
An important reason why people could choose their society to be organised as a ''republic'' is the prospect of staying free of
state religion: in this approach living under a monarch is seen as more easily inducing a uniform religion. All great monarchies had their state religion, in the case of
pharaohs and some emperors this could even lead to a religion where the monarch (or his dynasty) were endowed with a god-like status (see for example
imperial cult). On a different scale kingdoms can be entangled in a specific flavour of religion:
Catholicism in Belgium,
Church of England in the
United Kingdom,
Orthodoxy in Tsaristic
Russia and many more examples.
In absence of a monarchy, there can be no monarch pushing towards a single religion. As this had been the general perception by the time of the Enlightenment, it is not so surprising that republics were seen by some Enlightenment thinkers as the preferable form of state organisation, if one wanted to avoid the downsides of living under a too influential state religion. Rousseau, an exception, envisioned a republic with a demanding state "civil religion":
*
United States: the
Founding Fathers, seeing that no single religion would do for all Americans, adopted the principle that the federal government would not support any established religion, as Massachusetts and Connecticut did. At first the states remained free to establish religions, but they had all disestablished their churches by 1836, and any residual option was eliminated in the 20th century by federal courts applying the First Amendment.
* Besides being anti-monarchial, the
French Revolution, leading to the
first French Republic, was at least as much anti-religious, and led to the confiscation, pillage and/or destruction of many
abbeys,
beguinages,
churches and other religious buildings and/or communities{{ref.html">French Fifth Republic
Fifth Republic, ''
laïcité'' can be seen to have a much more profound meaning in republican
France than in neighbouring countries ruled as monarchies{{ref|Laicite}}.
Several states that called themselves republics have been fiercely anti-religious. This is particularly true for
communism communist republics like the (former)
Soviet Republics,
North Vietnam,
North Korea, and
China.
=Republics highlighting state religion impact
=
Some countries or states prefer or preferred to organise themselves as a republic, ''precisely'' because it allows them to inscribe a more or less obligatory state religion in their constitution:
Islamic republics generally take this approach, but the same is also true (in varying degrees) for example in the
Judaism Jewish state of
Israel, in the
Protestantism Protestant republic that originated in the
Netherlands during the
Renaissance{{ref.html">Catholic
Irish Republic, among others. In this case the advantage that is sought is that no ''broad-thinking'' monarch could push his citizens towards a less strict application of religious prescriptions (like for instance the
Millet.html">Millet_(Ottoman Empire)|Millet system had done in the
Ottoman Empire{{ref.html">Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII/
Edward VI of England Edward VI/
Mary I of England Mary I/
Elizabeth I of England Elizabeth I succession of ''monarchs'' in England). Such approach of an ideal republic based on a consolidated religious foundation played an important role for example in the
Iranian revolution overthrow of the regime of the
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Shah in
Iran, to be replaced by a ''republic'' with influential
ayatollahs (which is the term for religious leaders in that country), the most influential of which is called "
Supreme Leader of Iran supreme leader".
Concepts of democracy
Republics are often associated with
democracy, which seems natural if one acknowledges the meaning of the expression from which the word "republic" derives (see:
res publica). This association between "republic" and "democracy" is however far from a general understanding, even if acknowledging that there are
Democracy (varieties) several forms of democracy{{ref|Federalist}}. This section tries to give an outline of which concepts of democracy are associated with which types of republics.
As a preliminary remark it should be noted that the concept of "one equal vote per adult" did not become a genererally-accepted principle in democracies until around the middle of the
20th century: before that in all democracies the
Suffrage right to vote depended on one's financial situation,
sex,
race, or a combination of these and other factors. Many forms of government in previous times termed "democracy", including for instance the
Athenian democracy, would, when transplanted to the early
21st century be classified as
plutocracy or a broad
oligarchy, because of the rules on how votes were counted.
In a ''Western'' approach, warned by the possible dangers and impracticality of
direct democracy described since antiquity{{ref|Warning}}, there was a convergence towards
representative democracy, for republics as well as monarchies, from
the Enlightenment on. A direct democracy instrument like
referendums is still basically mistrusted in many of the countries that adopted representative democracy. Nonetheless, some republics like
Switzerland have a great deal of direct democracy in their state organisation, with usually several issues put before the people by referendum every year.
Marxism inspired state organisations that, at the height of the
Cold War, had barely more than a few external appearances in common with Western types of democracies. That is, notwithstanding that on an ideological level Marxism and
communism sought to empower
proletarians. A Communist republic like
Fidel Castro Fidel Castro's Cuba has many "popular committees" to allow participation from citizens on a very basic level, without much of a far-reaching political power resulting from that. This approach to democracy is sometimes termed
Basic democracy, but the term is contentious: the intended result is often something in between direct democracy and
grassroots democracy, but connotations may vary{{ref|Pakistan}}.
Some of the hardline
totalitarianism lived on in the East, even after the
Iron Curtain fell. Sometimes the full name of such republics can be deceptive: having "people's" or "democratic" in the name of a country can, in some cases bear no relation with the concepts of democracy (neither "representative" nor "direct") that grew in the West. It also should be clear that many of these "Eastern" type of republics fall outside a definition of a republic that supposes control over who is in power by the people at large – unless it is accepted that the preference the people displays for their leader is in all cases authentic.
Influence of republicanism
{{main|Republicanism}}
Like ''Anti-monarchism'' and ''religious differences'',
republicanism played no equal role in the emergence of the many actual republics. Up to the republics that originated in the late middle ages, even if, from what we know about them, they also can be qualified "republics" in a modern understanding of the word, establishing the kind and amount of "republicanism" that led to their emergence is often limited to educated guesswork, based on sources that are generally recognised to be partly fictitious reconstruction{{ref|Rome}}.
Republicanism was the founding ideology of the
United States of America and remains the core of American political values. See
Republicanism in the U.S.
Over time there were various mixtures of republicanism along with democratic theories of the rights of individuals, which (for instance in the
Age of Enlightenment) would find expression in the formation of "liberal" and "socialist" parties. What both
liberalism and
socialism shared was the belief in the self-determination of peoples, and in individual human dignity. But they disagreed and continue to disagree on whether this required a republic, what is the "exact" use of the term republic, and to what degree economic liberties should be regulated. This conflict is often described in terms of
capitalism versus socialism, and the compromise between democracy and having an hereditary head of state would be called
constitutional monarchy.
=In antiquity
=
In
ancient India, a number of republics known as ''
Mahajanapadas Maha Janapadas'' were established by the
6th century BC.
Vaishali, the earliest of these states, is considered the world's first republic.
In the
ancient Near East, a number of cities of the
Levant achieved collective rule.
Arwad has been cited{{ref|Bernal}} as the other earliest known example of a republic, in which the people, rather than a monarch, are described as sovereign.
The important politico-philosophical writings of Antiquity that survived the middle ages rarely had any influence on the emergence or strengthening of republics in the time they were written. When
Plato wrote the
dialogue that later, in English speaking countries, became known as ''
Republic (Plato) The Republic'' (a faulty translation from several points of view), Athenian democracy had already been established, and was not influenced by the treatise (if it had, it would have become ''less'' republican in a modern understanding). Plato's own experiment with his political principles in
Syracuse, Italy Syracuse were a failure.
Cicero's ''
De re publica'', far from being able to redirect the Roman state to reinforce its republican form of government, rather reads as a prelude to the
Roman Empire Imperial form of government that indeed emerged soon after Cicero's death.
=In the renaissance
=
The emergence of the
Renaissance, on the other hand, was marked by the adoption of many of these writings from Antiquity, which led to a more or less coherent view, retroactively termed "
classical republicanism". Differences however remained regarding which kind of "mix" in a
mixed government type of ideal state would be the most inherently ''republican''. For those republics that emerged after the publication of the Renaissance philosophies regarding republics, like the United Provinces in the Netherlands, it is not always all that clear what role exactly was played by republicanism - among a host of other reasons - that led to the choice for "republic" as form of state ("other reasons" indicated elsewhere in this article: e.g., not finding a suitable candidate as monarch; anti-Catholicism; a middle class striving for political influence).
=Enlightenment republicanism
=
Image:Statue-place-Republique2.jpg thumb|An allegory of the Republic in Paris
The Enlightenment had brought a new generation of political thinkers, showing that, among other things, political ''philosophy'' was in the process of refocussing to political ''science''. This time the influence of the political ''thinkers'', like
Locke, on the emergence of republics in America and France soon thereafter was unmistakable:
Separation of powers,
Separation of church and state, etc were introduced with a certain degree of success in the new republics, along the lines of the major political thinkers of the day.
In fact, the Enlightenment had set the standard for republics, as well as in many cases for monarchies, in the next century. The most important principles established by the close of the Enlightenment were
the rule of law, the requirement that governments reflect the
self-interest of the people that were subject to that law, that governments act in the
national interest, in ways which are understandable to the public at large, and that there be some means of
self-determination.
=Proletarian republicanism
=
The next major branch in political thinking was pushed forward by
Karl Marx, who argued that classes, rather than nationalities, had interests. He argued that governments represented the interests of the dominant class, and that, eventually, the states of his era would be overthrown by those dominated by the rising class of the
proletariat{{ref|Proletariat}}.
Here again the formation of republics along the line of the new political philosophies followed quickly after the emergence of the philosophies: from the early 20th century on ''communist'' type of republics were set up (communist ''monarchies'' were at least ''by name'' excluded), many of them standing for about a century - but in increasing tension with the states that were more direct heirs of the ideas of the Enlightenment.
=Islamic republicanism
=
Following decolonialization in the second half of 20th century, the ''political'' dimension of the Islam{{ref|Islam}} knew a new impulse, leading to several
Islamic republics. As far as "Enlightenment" and "communist" principles were sometimes up to a limited level incorporated in these republics, such principles were always subject to principles laid down in the
Qur'an. The strife for Islamic republics is generally not regarded as a form of "republicanism" by western scholars.
Economical factors
The ancient concept of
res publica, when applied to politics, had always implied that citizens on one level or another ''took part'' in governing the state: at least citizens were not indifferent to decisions taken by those in charge, and could engage in political debate. A line of thought followed often by historians{{ref|Carefree}} is that citizens, under normal circumstances, would only become politically active if they had spare time above and beyond the daily effort for mere survival. In other words, enough of a wealthy middle class (that did not get its political influence from a monarch as nobility did) is often seen as one of the preconditions to establish a republican form of government. In this reasoning neither the cities of the
Hanseatic League, nor late 19th century
Catalonia, nor the Netherlands during their
Golden Age emerging in the form of a republic comes as a surprise, all of them at the top of their wealth through commerce and societies with an influential and rich middle class.
Here also the different nature of republics inspired by Marxism becomes apparent: Karl Marx theorised that the government of a state should be based on the proletarians, that is on those whose political opinions never had been asked before, even less had been considered to really matter when designing a state organisation. There was a problem Marxist/Communist types of republics had to solve: most proletarians were lacking interest and/or experience in designing a state organisation, even if acquainted with ''
Das Kapital'' or
Friedrich Engels Engels' writings. While the ''practical'' political involvement of proletarians on the level of an entire country hardly ever materialised, these communist republics were more often than not organised in a very top-down structure.
Aggregations of states
When a country or state is organised on several levels (that is: several states that are "associated" in a "superstructure", or a country is split in sub-states with a relative form of independency) several models exist:
* Both over-arching structure and sub-states take the form of a republic (Example:
United States)
* The over-arching structure is a republic, while the sub-states are not necessarily (Example:
European Union);
* The over-arching structure is not a republic, while the sub-states can be (Example:
Holy Roman Empire, after the emergence of republics, like those of the
Hanseatic League, within its realm).
=Sub-national republics
=
In general being a republic also implies
sovereignty as for the state to be ruled by the people it cannot be controlled by a foreign power. There are important exceptions to this, for example, Republics in the
Soviet Union were member states which had to meet three criteria to be named republics,
:1) Be on the periphery of the Soviet Union so as to be able to take advantage of their theoretical right to secede,
:2) Be economically strong enough to be self sufficient upon secession, And
:3) Be named after at least one million people of the ethnic group which should make up the majority population of said republic.
Republics were originally created by Stalin and continue to be created even today in Russia. Russia itself is not a republic but a federation.
It is sometimes argued that the former
Soviet Union was also a supra-national republic, based on the claim that the member states were different
nations.
States of the
United States are required, like the federal government, to be republican in form, with final authority resting with the people. This was required because the states were intended to create and enforce most domestic laws, with the exception of areas delegated to the federal government and prohibited to the states. The founding fathers of the country intended most domestic laws to be handled by the states, although, over time, the federal government has gained more and more influence over domestic law. Requiring the states to be a republic in form was seen as protecting the citizens' rights and preventing a state from becoming a dictatorship or monarchy, and reflected unwillingness on the part of the original 13 states (all independent republics) to unite with other states that were not republics. Additionally, this requirement ensured that only other republics could join the union.
In the example of the
United States, the original 13 British
colonies became
independent states after the
American Revolution, each having a republican form of
government. These independent states initially formed a loose
confederation called the United States and then later formed the current United States by ratifying the current
U.S. Constitution, creating a
union of
sovereign states with the union or
Federal government of the United States federal government also being a republic. States joining the union later were also required to be a republic. The United States could be argued to be a supra-national republic on the grounds that the original states were independent countries and was formed of several nations, most notably the original 13 colonies/states, the Republic of
Texas, and the Kingdom of
Hawaii, all of which would be considered "
nations" under a strict definition of the word.
=Supra-national republics
=
Sovereign countries can decide to hand in a limited part of their sovereignty to a supra-national organisation. The most famous example of this, since the second half of the 20th century, is the emergence of the
European Union, which models its organisation as a republic. That it would be a republic in a strict sense can be debated while the European Union is not a "country" in a strict sense. Being a republic is not part of the admission criteria for the member states{{ref.html">European constitution would establish its form of government as
secular.html">Secularity#Secular|secular{{ref|Secularity}}.
The
European Union, like the United States, is also formed by independent states creating a union, except that the member states of the European Union are not required to be a republic. The European Union currently is not classified as a country, however it is starting to exhibit behaviors similar to a
state. Regardless, the European Union could still be classified as a supra-national republic even if it were to exhibit powers similar to a state because it is made of many
nations.
Examples of republics
{{main|List of Republics}}
In the early 21st century the states that are not monarchies, but still don't label themselves as republics are the
Libyan Arab
Jamahiriya, the State of
Israel, the
Myanmar Union of Myanmar and the
Russian
Federation. Israel and Russia, and even Myanmar and Libya, would meet many definitions of the term ''republic'', however.
Republics by additional qualifier:
* ''Without'' other qualifier than the term ''Republic'' - for example
France.
*
Federal republic -
United States USA,
Austria,
Brazil,
Germany,
India are republics governed by representative democracy, in which the states play a crucial role.
*
Confederation -
Switzerland is a confederal republic governed by a combination of representative democracy and
direct democracy. Please note the
confederation page says Switzerland is now a
federation in its confederation vs. federation section. A better example should be found.
*
Islamic Republic - Countries like
Afghanistan,
Pakistan,
Iran are republics governed in accordance with Islamic law. (Note:
Turkey is a distinct exception and is ''not'' included in this list; while the population is predominantly Moslem, the state is a secular and modern republic.)
*
Arab Republic - for example,
Syria its name reflecting its theoretically pan-Arab
Ba'athist government.
*
People's Republic - Countries like
China,
North Korea are meant to be governed for and by the people but generally without direct elections. This name is generally used by
communist states.
*
Democratic Republic - Also often used by communists is similar in meaning to People's Republic, e.g.
German Democratic Republic (no longer in existence).
*
Commonwealth (''
Rzeczpospolita'') - polish calque world for ''res publica'', used in Poland for current
Republic of Poland, and historical Nobles' Rzeczpospolita.
*
Free state (government) Free state - Sometimes used as a label to indicate implementation of, or transition from a
monarchy monarchical to, a republican form of government. Used for the
Irish Free State under a
Irish Republicanism Irish Republican government, while still remaining part of the
British Empire.
* Other modifiers are rooted in tradition and history and usually have no real political meaning.
San Marino, for instance, is the "Most Serene Republic" while
Uruguay is the "Eastern Republic".
Generally, political scientists try to analyse underlying realities, not the titles used: whether a political leader calls himself "king" or "president", and the state he governs a "monarchy" or a "republic" is not the essential characteristic, whether he exercises power as an autocrat or not is. In this sense political analysts may say that the
First World War was, in many respects, the death knell for monarchy, and the establishment of republicanism, whether de facto and/or de jure, as being essential for a modern state. The
Austro-Hungarian Empire and the
German Empire were both abolished by the terms of the peace treaty after the war, the Russian Empire overthrown by the
Russian Revolution of 1917. Even within the victorious states, monarchs were gradually being stripped of their powers and prerogatives, and more and more the government was in the hands of elected bodies whose majority party headed the executive. Nonetheless post-WWI Germany, a ''de jure'' republic, would develop into a ''de facto'' autocracy by the mid
1930s: the new peace treaty, after the
Second World War, took more precaution in making the terms thus that also ''de facto'' (the Western part of) Germany would remain a republic.
References and notes
#{{note|definition}} Shorter definitions of ''Republic'', like for instance
Webster's Third New International Dictionary Webster's "a state where the head of state is not a monarch, and in modern times is usually a president", don't acknowledge that the distinction between ''
monarchy'' and ''republic'' was not always made as it is in modern times (see for instance Machiavelli footnote below); that ''
oligarchy oligarchies'' are traditionally considered neither ''monarchy'' nor ''republic'', and that such definition depends very much on the ''monarch'' concept, which has various definitions, not making clear which of these is used for defining ''republic''.
#{{note|Rome}}
Tacitus, ''
Annals (Tacitus) Ann.'' I,1-15.
#{{note|LeopoldIII}} Example:
Leopold III of Belgium replaced by
Baudouin of Belgium Baudouin in
1951 under popular pressure.
#{{note|Prince}} See for example the opening chapter of
Niccolò Machiavelli Machiavelli's ''
The Prince''. Note however that even Machiavelli could not always keep to this mutual exclusiveness of "republics" and "monarchies", not even in ''The Prince'': for example, when he tries to characterise the form of government of the
Papal States in the 11th chapter of that book, he points out that usual methods and distinctions are not applicable for analysing such type of state.
#{{note|Zaire}} For instance
Mobutu Sese Seko is generally considered such "autocrat" that tried to give an appearance of "republican democracy" to his style of government, for instance by allowing something that was generally regarded a sockpuppet opposition.
#{{note|EverydayLanguage}} References where in everyday language countries with a king or emperor as head of state are termed ''republic'' have not been encountered.
#{{note|Netherlands}} For instance the
Dutch Republic United Provinces: after the
Oath of Abjuration (
1581) the
François, Duke of Anjou Duke of Anjou and later the
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester Earl of Leicester were asked to rule the Netherlands. After these candidates had declined the office, the
Republic of the Seven United Netherlands Republic was only established in
1588.
#{{note|Religion}} This section draws from, among others, ''Geschiedenis der nieuwe tijden'' by J. Warichez and L. Brounts, 1946, Standaard Boekhandel (Antwerp/Brussels/Ghent/Louvain) and ''Cultuurgetijden'' (history books for secondary school in 6 volumes), Dr. J. A. Van Houtte et. al., several editions and reprints in 1960s through 1970s, Van In (Lier).
#{{note|States}} Note however that individual states of the US could have a state religion.
#{{note|Republicanism}} see also
Republicanism and religion
#{{note|Laicite}} Example:
French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools - a similar law was tentatively debated in Belgium, but deemed incompatible with the less profoundly ''secularized'' Belgian state.
#{{note|Willem}} After the Duke of Anjou and the Earl of Leicester had declined the offer to become ruler of the Seven Provinces (see note above),
William I of Orange had been the obvious choice for king: the volume ''Nieuwe tijden'' from the ''Cultuurgetijden'' series as mentioned in a previous note, elaborates on p. 63-65 (supported by a quote of the contemporary
Pontus Payen) that William of Orange was perceived as too lenient towards Catholicism to be acceptable as king for the Protestants.
#{{note|Multicultural}} Although in Turkey the ensuing ''republic'' would become relatively tolerant towards other religions, the straight
multicultural approach of the Millet system, that had allowed Christians and Jews to form state-in-state like communities, would remain unparallelled.
#{{note|Federalist}} See for example ''
Federalist No. 10'' by
James Madison - An original framer of the U.S. Constitution advocates a ''republic'' over a ''democracy''. See
Republicanism in the United States for the
connotations of the terms "democracy" and "republic" in the
1787 context when this article was written. Further clarification of this "democracy" vs "republic" idea in the US can be found in
Republicanism in the United States#A typical definition of democracy vs republic
#{{note|Warning}} Some of the earliest warnings in this sense came from
Socrates' pupils
Plato and
Xenophon around 400 BC: indeed their friend Socrates had been condemned to death in an entirely "democratic" system at
Athens, hence they preferred the ''less democratic''
Spartan system of government. See also
Trial of Socrates -
Laws (dialogue).
#{{note|Pakistan}} For instance in
Pakistan the expression "basic democracy" is tied to the epoch of the military dictature.
#{{note|Rome}} For example, what is known about the origins of the Roman Republic is based on works by
Polybius,
Livy,
Plutarch, and others, all of which wrote at least some centuries after the emergence of that Republic — without exception all these authors have historical exactitude issues, including relative uncertainty over the year when the Roman Republic would have emerged.
# {{note|Bernal}} Martin Bernal, ''Black Athena Writes Back'' (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001), 359.
#{{note|Proletariat}} See for instance
Marxism,
Paris Commune.
#{{note|Islam}} That
Islam would have a more ''intrinsic'' political dimension than most other religions is argued, among others, by
Afshin Ellian ([http://www.onderzoekinformatie.nl/en/oi/nod/onderzoeker/PRS1270113/]) in his book ''Brieven van een Pers'' (Meulenhoff - ISBN 9029075228)
#{{note|Carefree}} For instance, ''Historia'' series of history books, chief editor prof. dr. M. Dierickx sj, published by De Nederlandse Boekhandel (Antwerpen/Amsterdam) in several editions from 1955 to the late 1970s studies these links between the presence of a wealthy middle class and the republics that emerged throughout history.
#{{note|EUconstitution}} see for example [http://europa.eu.int/constitution/en/part13_en.htm#a73 Title IX] and [http://europa.eu.int/constitution/en/part2_en.htm#a3 Title I] in the text for [http://europa.eu.int/constitution/en/lsart1_en.htm a constitution for Europe]
#{{note|Secularity}} After some fierce debate it was decided that the
2005 version of the Constitution proposal would not make any reference to the "Christian" roots (among other communal values) of Europe, see [http://europa.eu.int/constitution/en/part2_en.htm#a5 Art. I,2 of the European Constitution proposal].
Further reading
*
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, ''
The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right Du Contrat Social, ou Principes de Droit Politique'' (1762)
*
William Everdell, The End of Kings: A History of Republics and Republicans, 1983, 2nd ed., Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 2000
*Martin van Gelderen &
Quentin Skinner, eds., Republicanism: A Shared European Heritage, v1, Republicanism and Constitutionalism in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2002
*Martin van Gelderen & Quentin Skinner, eds., Republicanism: A Shared European Heritage, v2, The Values of Republicanism in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2002
*Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government, NY: Oxford U.P., 1997, ISBN 0198290837; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.
Category:Forms of government
Category:Republics *
ms:Republik
bg:Република
ca:República
cs:Republika
da:Republik
de:Republik
es:República
eo:Respubliko
fa:جمهوری
fr:République
fy:Republyk
gl:República
ko:ê³µí™”ì œ
is:Lýðveldi
he:רפובליקה
la:Res Publica
li:Rippebliek
nl:Republiek
nds:Republiek
ja:共和制
no:Republikk
nrm:Républyique
pl:Republika (ustrój)
pt:República
qu:República
ru:РеÑ?публика
simple:Republic
sl:Republika
sr:Република
fi:Tasavalta
sv:Republik
th:สาธารณรั�
tr:Cumhuriyet
zh:共和制
*** Shopping-Tip: Republic
