Editing Republic (section)

== Other meanings ==
{{republicanism sidebar}}

===Archaic meaning===
Before the 17th Century, the term 'republic' could be used to refer to states of any form of government as long as it was not a tyrannical regime. French philosopher [[Jean Bodin]]'s definition of the republic was "the rightly ordered government of a number of families, and of those things which are their common concern, by a sovereign power." Oligarchies and monarchies could also be included as they were also organised toward 'public' shared interests.<ref name="Munro">{{cite web |first1=André |last1=Munro |title=republic |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/republic-government |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=15 Dec 2021}}</ref> In medieval texts, 'republic' was used to refer to the body of shared interest with the king at its head.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Frank Anthony Carl |last1=Mantello |first2=A. G. |last2=Rigg |title=Medieval Latin: An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide |date=1996 |publisher=CUA Press |isbn=9780813208428 |page=209 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bb32Th4WAK0C&pg=PA209 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Glenn |first1=Jason |title=Politics and History in the Tenth Century: The Work and World of Richer of Reims |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521834872 |page=246 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tkPcvsHbsiIC&pg=PA246 }}</ref> For instance, the [[Holy Roman Empire]] was also known as the ''Sancta Respublica Romana'', the Holy Roman Republic.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Christopher Dawson |title=The Making of Europe: An Introduction to the History of European Unity |date=2002 |publisher=CUA Press |isbn=9780813210834 |page=101}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Giuliano Amato, Enzo Moavero-Milanesi, Gianfranco Pasquino, Lucrezia Reichlin |title=The History of the European Union: Constructing Utopia |date=2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781509917426 |page=17}}</ref> The [[Byzantine Empire]] also continued calling itself ''the Roman Republic'' as the Byzantines did not regard monarchy as a contradiction to republicanism. Instead, republics were defined as any state based on popular sovereignty and whose institutions were based on shared values.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anthony Kaldellis |title=Ethnography After Antiquity: Foreign Lands and Peoples in Byzantine Literature |date=2013 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=9780812208405 |page=14}}</ref>

=== Democracy vs. republic debate ===
{{See also|Democratic republic}}
In a republic state, power is held by the people through elected representatives. The head of state is typically elected or nominated by representatives. In a democratic state, power is wielded by the people of the state, typically through a mixture of elected representatives and direct voting, but in theory could happen purely by [[Direct democracy]] without elected representatives acting as proxies. Many states are considered a mixture of both ideals, such as a [[Representative democracy]] or [[Democratic republic]].

The term [[democracy]] is sometimes used interchangeably with the term republic, while others have made sharp distinctions between the two for millennia. "Montesquieu, founder of the modern constitutional state, repeated in his The Spirit of the Laws of 1748 the insight that Aristotle had expressed two millennia earlier, 'Voting by lot is in the nature of democracy; voting by choice is in the nature of aristocracy.{{'"}}<ref name=":6">Van Reybrouck, David. ''Against Elections'' (p. 75). Seven Stories Press. 2016.</ref> Additional critics of elections include [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]], [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]], and [[Jean-Paul Marat|Marat]], who said of the new French Republic, "What use is it to us, that we have broken the aristocracy of the nobles, if that is replaced by the aristocracy of the rich?"<ref name=":4">Van Reybrouck, David. ''Against Elections'' (p. 85). Seven Stories Press. 2016.</ref>

=== Political philosophy ===
{{Main|Republicanism}}

The term ''republic'' originated from the writers of the [[Renaissance]] as a descriptive term for states that were not monarchies. These writers, such as Machiavelli, also wrote important prescriptive works describing how such governments should function. These ideas of how a government and society should be structured is the basis for an ideology known as [[classical republicanism]] or [[civic humanism]]. This ideology is based on the Roman Republic and the city states of Ancient Greece and focuses on ideals such as [[civic virtue]], [[rule of law]] and mixed government.<ref>"[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/republicanism/ Republicanism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180309140336/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/republicanism/ |date=2018-03-09 }}" ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''. Jun 19, 2006</ref>

This understanding of a republic as a form of government distinct from a [[liberal democracy]] is one of the main theses of the Cambridge School of historical analysis.<ref>McCormick, John P. "Machiavelli against Republicanism: On the Cambridge School's 'Guicciardinian Moments{{'"}} ''Political Theory'', Vol. 31, No. 5 (Oct., 2003), pp. 615–43</ref> This grew out of the work of [[J. G. A. Pocock]] who in 1975 argued that a series of scholars had expressed a consistent set of republican ideals. These writers included Machiavelli, Milton, Montesquieu and the founders of the United States of America.

Pocock argued that this was an ideology with a history and principles distinct from liberalism.<ref>Pocock, J. G. A ''The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition'' Princeton: 1975, 2003</ref> These ideas were embraced by a number of different writers, including [[Quentin Skinner]], [[Philip Pettit]]<ref>Philip Pettit, ''Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government'', NY: Oxford U.P., 1997, {{ISBN|0-19-829083-7}}; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.</ref> and [[Cass Sunstein]]. These subsequent writers have further explored the history of the idea, and also outlined how a modern republic should function.

=== United States ===
{{Main|Republicanism in the United States}}

A distinct set of definitions of the term "republic" evolved in the United States, where the term is often equated with "[[representative democracy]]." This narrower understanding of the term was originally developed by James Madison<ref>{{Cite web|title=Democracy - Democracy or republic?|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/democracy|access-date=2021-06-27|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=What Is a Democracy? [ushistory.org]|url=https://www.ushistory.org/gov/1c.asp|access-date=2021-06-27|website=www.ushistory.org}}</ref> and notably employed in [[Federalist No. 10|Federalist Paper No. 10]]. This meaning was widely adopted early in the history of the United States, including in [[Noah Webster]]'s dictionary of 1828.<ref>{{Cite web|title=SEARCHING -word- for [republic] :: Search the 1828 Noah Webster's Dictionary of the English Language (FREE) :: 1828.mshaffer.com|url=https://1828.mshaffer.com/d/search/word,republic|access-date=2021-06-27|website=1828.mshaffer.com}}</ref> It was a novel meaning to the term; representative democracy was not an idea mentioned by Machiavelli and did not exist in the classical republics.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Everdell|2000}} p. 6</ref> There is also evidence that contemporaries of Madison considered the meaning of "republic" to reflect the broader definition found elsewhere, as is the case with a quotation of [[Benjamin Franklin]] taken from the notes of [[James McHenry]] where the question is put forth, "a Republic or a Monarchy?".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/73/1593.html|title=1593. Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989|date=25 June 2022 }}</ref>

The term republic does not appear in the [[Declaration of Independence (United States)|Declaration of Independence]], but it does appear in Article IV of the Constitution, which "guarantee[s] to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government." What exactly the writers of the constitution felt this should mean is uncertain. The [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]], in ''[[Luther v. Borden]]'' (1849), declared that the definition of ''republic'' was a "[[political question]]" in which it would not intervene. In two later cases, it did establish a basic definition. In ''[[United States v. Cruikshank]]'' (1875), the court ruled that the "equal rights of citizens" were inherent to the idea of a republic.

However, the term republic is not synonymous with the republican form. The republican form is defined as one in which the powers of sovereignty are vested in the people and are exercised by the people, either directly, or through representatives chosen by the people, to whom those powers are specially delegated.<ref>''In re Duncan'', 139 U.S. 449, 11 S.Ct. 573, 35 L.Ed. 219; ''Minor v. Happersett'', 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 162, 22 L.Ed. 627.</ref><ref>GOVERNMENT (Republican Form of Government) – One in which the powers of sovereignty are vested in the people and are exercised by the people ... directly ... Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, p. 695</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Multiple ellipses in cited quotation, reference is also specific to legal terminology, not common language.|date=December 2018}}

Beyond these basic definitions, the word republic has a number of other connotations. W. Paul Adams observes that republic is most often used in the United States as a synonym for "state" or "government," but with more positive connotations than either of those terms.<ref>W. Paul Adams "Republicanism in Political Rhetoric Before 1776". ''Political Science Quarterly'', Vol. 85, No. 3 (Sep., 1970), pp. 397–421</ref> Republicanism is often referred to as the founding ideology of the United States.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Wood|first=Gordon|date=April 1990|title=Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution|url=https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2785&context=cklawreview|journal=Chicago-Kent Law Review|volume=66|pages=13–20 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307154456/https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=2785&context=cklawreview |archive-date= Mar 7, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last1=Hutchins|first1=Thomas|last2=Washington|first2=George|last3=Paine|first3=Thomas|last4=Jefferson|first4=Thomas|last5=Adams|first5=John|last6=Fadden|first6=Will|date=2008-04-12|title=Founded on a Set of Beliefs - Creating the United States {{!}} Exhibitions |url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/creating-the-united-states/founded-on-a-set-of-beliefs.html|access-date=2021-06-27|website=Library of Congress }}</ref> Traditionally scholars believed this American republicanism was a derivation of the classical liberal ideologies of [[John Locke]] and others developed in Europe.<ref name=":0" />

In the 1960s and 1970s, [[Bernard Bailyn]] began to argue that republicanism was just as, or even more important than liberalism in the creation of the United States.<ref>Bailyn, Bernard. ''The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution''. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967.</ref> This issue is still much disputed and scholars like [[Isaac Kramnick]] completely reject this view.<ref>Kramnick, Isaac. ''Republicanism and Bourgeois Radicalism: Political Ideology in Late Eighteenth-Century England and America''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990.</ref>