Explain in detail about the social life of people in republics.
Answers
Republic, form of government in which a state is ruled by representatives of the citizen body. Modern republics are founded on the idea that sovereignty rests with the people, though who is included and excluded from the category of the people has varied across history. Because citizens do not govern the state themselves but through representatives, republics may be distinguished from direct democracy, though modern representative democracies are by and large republics. The term republic may also be applied to any form of government in which the head of state is not a hereditary monarch.
Prior to the 17th century, the term was used to designate any state, with the exception of tyrannical regimes. Derived from the Latin expression res publica (“the public thing”), the category of republic could encompass not only democratic states but also oligarchies, aristocracies, and monarchies. In Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576), his canonical study of sovereignty, the French political philosopher Jean Bodin thus offered a far-reaching definition of the republic: “the rightly ordered government of a number of families, and of those things which are their common concern, by a sovereign power.” Tyrannies were excluded from this definition, because their object is not the common good but the private benefit of a single individual.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the meaning of republic shifted with the growing resistance to absolutist regimes and their upheaval in a series of wars and revolutions, from the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648) to the American Revolution (1775–83) and the French Revolution (1787–89). Shaped by those events, the term republic came to designate a form of government in which the leader is periodically appointed under a constitution, in contrast to hereditary monarchies.
ArticleMediaAdditional Info
HomeGeography & TravelStates & Other Subdivisions
Republic
government
WRITTEN BY
André Munro
André Munro was an editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica. He subsequently became Content Manager at PressReader. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science (Northwestern University) and has written numerous articles...
See Article History
Republic, form of government in which a state is ruled by representatives of the citizen body. Modern republics are founded on the idea that sovereignty rests with the people, though who is included and excluded from the category of the people has varied across history. Because citizens do not govern the state themselves but through representatives, republics may be distinguished from direct democracy, though modern representative democracies are by and large republics. The term republic may also be applied to any form of government in which the head of state is not a hereditary monarch.
Republic
QUICK FACTS
KEY PEOPLE
Niccolò Machiavelli
RELATED TOPICS
Political system
Democratic peace
Representative democracy
Republicanism
Prior to the 17th century, the term was used to designate any state, with the exception of tyrannical regimes. Derived from the Latin expression res publica (“the public thing”), the category of republic could encompass not only democratic states but also oligarchies, aristocracies, and monarchies. In Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576), his canonical study of sovereignty, the French political philosopher Jean Bodin thus offered a far-reaching definition of the republic: “the rightly ordered government of a number of families, and of those things which are their common concern, by a sovereign power.” Tyrannies were excluded from this definition, because their object is not the common good but the private benefit of a single individual.
Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin, 16th-century engraving.
Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
voting in the 2012 U.S. presidential election
READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC
democracy: Democracy or republic?
Is democracy the most appropriate name for a large-scale representative system such as that of...
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the meaning of republic shifted with the growing resistance to absolutist regimes and their upheaval in a series of wars and revolutions, from the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648) to the American Revolution (1775–83) and the French Revolution (1787–89). Shaped by those events, the term republic came to designate a form of government in which the leader is periodically appointed under a constitution, in contrast to hereditary monarchies.
Despite its democratic implications, the term was claimed in the 20th century by states whose leadership enjoyed more power than most traditional monarchs, including military dictatorships such as the Republic of Chile under Augusto Pinochet and totalitarian regimes such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
mark me as brilliant
Answer:
Answer:As of 2017, 159 of the world's 206 sovereign states use the word "republic" as part of their official names – not all of these are republics in the sense of having elected governments, nor is the word "republic" used in the names of all nations with elected governments.
Answer:As of 2017, 159 of the world's 206 sovereign states use the word "republic" as part of their official names – not all of these are republics in the sense of having elected governments, nor is the word "republic" used in the names of all nations with elected governments.The word republic comes from the Latin term res publica, which literally means "public thing", "public matter", or "public affair" and was used to refer to the state as a whole. The term developed its modern meaning in reference to the constitution of the ancient Roman Republic, lasting from the overthrow of the kings in 509 BC to the establishment of the Empire in 27 BC. This constitution was characterized by a Senate composed of wealthy aristocrats and wielding significant influence; several popular assemblies of all free citizens, possessing the power to elect magistrates and pass laws; and a series of magistracies with varying types of civil and political authority.