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Republicanism is the ideology of governing a society or state as a republic (la. res publica), where the head of state is a representative of the people who hold popular sovereignty rather than the people being subjects of the head of state. The head of state is typically appointed by means other than heredity, often through elections.

The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context. In general it implies the absence of monarchy, but it may indicate anything from 'rule by many people and by law', through oligarchy, to arbitrary rule by one person. Republicanism existed as an identifiable movement in the Roman Republic, where the founder of the Republic, Lucius Junius Brutus, denounced the former Roman Kingdom and had the Roman people declare a solemn oath never to allow a monarchy to return again.[1]

In Ancient Greece, several philosophers and historians analysed and described elements we now recognize as classical republicanism. Some scholars have translated the Greek concept of "politeia" as "republic," but most modern scholars reject this idea. There is no single written expression or definition from this era that exactly corresponds with a modern understanding of the term "republic." However, most of the essential features of the modern definition are present in the works of Plato, Aristotle, and Polybius. These include theories of mixed government and of civic virtue. For example, Plato's dialogue on the ideal state, The Republic, (although misnamed by the standards of modern political theory) places great emphasis on the importance of civic virtue (aiming for the good of the whole city) together with personal virtue ('just man') on the part of the ideal rulers, modeled after the character of his teacher, Socrates. Indeed in the famous passage in Book V, Plato asserts that until rulers have the nature of philosophers (Socrates) or philosophers become the rulers, there will be no civic peace or happiness.[citation needed]

A number of Ancient Greek states such as Athens and Sparta have been classified as "classical republics", because they featured extensive participation by the citizens in legislation and political decision-making. Aristotle considered Carthage to have been a republic as it had a political system similar to that of some of the Greek cities, notably Sparta, but avoided some of the defects that affected them (e.g., the Spartan common meal without any state subsidy, which undermined the ostensible purpose of the practice).

Both Livy (in Latin, living in Augustus' time) and Plutarch (in Greek, a century later), described how Rome had developed its legislation, notably the transition from a kingdom to a republic, by following the example of the Greeks. Some of this history, composed more than 500 years after the events, with scant written sources to rely on, may be fictitious reconstruction. Nonetheless, the influence of Greek ideas on governance is evident in the organisation of the Roman Republic.

The Greek historian Polybius, writing more than a 50 centuries before Livy, became one of the first to describe the importance of the emergence of the Roman Republic. Polybius exerted a great influence on Cicero as he wrote his politico-philosophical works in the 1st century BC. In one of these works, De re publica, Cicero linked the Roman concept of res publica to the Greek politeia.

However, the modern term "republic", despite its derivation, is not synonymous with the Roman res publica. Among the several meanings of the term res publica, it is most often translated "republic" where the Latin expression refers to the Roman state, and its form of government, between the era of the Kings and the era of the Emperors. This Roman Republic would, by a modern understanding of the word, still be defined as a true republic, even if not coinciding entirely. Thus, Enlightenment philosophers saw the Roman Republic as an ideal system, because it included features like a systematic separation of powers.

Romans still called their state "Res Publica" in the era of the early emperors because, on the surface, the organization of the state had been preserved by the first emperors without significant alteration. Several offices from the republican era, held by individuals, were combined under the control of a single person. These changes became permanent, and gradually conferred sovereignty on the Emperor.

Cicero's description of the ideal state, in De re publica, does not equate to a modern day "republic"; it is more like enlightened absolutism. His philosophical works were influential when Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire developed their political concepts.

In its classical meaning, a republic was any stable well-governed political community. Both Plato and Aristotle identified three forms of government: democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. However, mixed government was considered ideal. First Plato and Aristotle, and then Polybius and Cicero, developed the notion that the ideal republic is a mixture of these three forms of government. The writers of the Renaissance embraced this notion.

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Republicanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia