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Republic

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Republic



 
 
A republic is a state
State

A state is a political Social contract with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. These may be nation states, State or multinational states....
 or country
Country

Country may refer to the territory of a state, or to a smaller, or former, political division of a geographical region. In another meaning of the word, the country is also a term used to refer to rural areas....
 that is not led by a hereditary monarch but in which the people (or at least a part of its people) have an impact on its government. The word originates from the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 term res publica
Res publica

Res publica is a Latin phrase, literally meaning "public issue" or "public matter". It is the origin of the word 'republic', though translations vary widely according to the context....
.

ost modern republics, the head of state
Head of State

Head of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchic or republican nation-state, federation, commonwealth or any other political state....
 is termed president
President

President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, company, trade unions, university, and country. Etymology, a "president" is one who Wiktionary:Preside, who sits in leadership ....
. Other titles that have been used are consul
Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Roman Empire. The title was also used in other city states, and revived in modern states, notably French Republic before the Napoleon I of Franceic counter-revolution....
, doge
Doge

Doge is a dialectal Italian language word that descends from the Latin dux , meaning "leader", especially in a military context.The title of Doge was used for the elected chief of state in a number of Italy "crowned republics"....
, archon
Archon

Archon is a Greek language word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ???-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy and anarchism....
 and many others. In republics that are also democracies
Democracy

Democracy is a form of government in which power is held directly or indirectly by citizens under a free electoral system. It is derived from the Greek language d?????at?a , "popular government" which was coined from d???? , "people" and ???t?? , "rule, strength" in the middle of the 5th-4th century BC to denote the political syst...
, the head of state is selected as the result of an election.






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Timeline

500 BC   Foundation of first republic in Vaishali Bihar India.

1527   Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes a republic.

1650   William III of Orange becomes Prince of the House of Orange the moment of his birth, succeeding his father who had died a few days earlier. He doesn't become stadtholder, so the United Provinces become a true republic.

1804   End of French rule in Haiti. Haiti gains independence from France and becomes the first black republic and have the only successful slave revolt ever.

1810   ''Dieciséis de septiembre'', the Mexican War of Independence of the Republic of Mexico.

1825   Bolivia gains independence from Peru as a republic with the instigation of Simón Bolívar.

1918   November 9 — Provisional National Council Minister-President Kurt Eisner declares Bavaria to be a republic.

1918   November 12 — Austria becomes a republic.

1918   November 14 — Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.

1923   Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire







Encyclopedia


A republic is a state
State

A state is a political Social contract with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. These may be nation states, State or multinational states....
 or country
Country

Country may refer to the territory of a state, or to a smaller, or former, political division of a geographical region. In another meaning of the word, the country is also a term used to refer to rural areas....
 that is not led by a hereditary monarch but in which the people (or at least a part of its people) have an impact on its government. The word originates from the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 term res publica
Res publica

Res publica is a Latin phrase, literally meaning "public issue" or "public matter". It is the origin of the word 'republic', though translations vary widely according to the context....
.

Characteristics of republics


Head of state

In most modern republics, the head of state
Head of State

Head of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchic or republican nation-state, federation, commonwealth or any other political state....
 is termed president
President

President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, company, trade unions, university, and country. Etymology, a "president" is one who Wiktionary:Preside, who sits in leadership ....
. Other titles that have been used are consul
Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Roman Empire. The title was also used in other city states, and revived in modern states, notably French Republic before the Napoleon I of Franceic counter-revolution....
, doge
Doge

Doge is a dialectal Italian language word that descends from the Latin dux , meaning "leader", especially in a military context.The title of Doge was used for the elected chief of state in a number of Italy "crowned republics"....
, archon
Archon

Archon is a Greek language word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ???-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy and anarchism....
 and many others. In republics that are also democracies
Democracy

Democracy is a form of government in which power is held directly or indirectly by citizens under a free electoral system. It is derived from the Greek language d?????at?a , "popular government" which was coined from d???? , "people" and ???t?? , "rule, strength" in the middle of the 5th-4th century BC to denote the political syst...
, the head of state is selected as the result of an election. This election can be indirect, such as if a council of some sort, or a parliament
Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom....
 is elected by the people, and this council or parliament then elects the head of state. In these kinds of republics, the usual term for a president is in the range of four to seven years. In some countries the constitution
Constitution

A constitution is a system for government — often codified as a written document — that establishes the rules and principles of an autonomous political entity....
 limits the number of terms the same person can be elected as president. This type of democracy was used in Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
.

If the head of state of a republic is at the same time the head of government
Head of government

The head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet . In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled Prime Minister, President of the Government, Premier, etc....
, this is called a presidential system
Presidential system

A presidential system is a system of government where an executive branch exists and presides separately from the legislature, to which it is not wikt:accountable and which cannot, in normal circumstances, wikt:dismiss it....
 (example: United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
). In semi-presidential system
Semi-presidential system

The semi-presidential system is a system of government in which a Prime Minister and a president are both active participants in the day-to-day administration of the state....
s and parliamentary republic
Parliamentary republic

A parliamentary republic or parliamentary constitutional republic is a form of a republic which operates under a parliamentary system of government ....
s, where the head of state is not the same person as the head of government
Head of government

The head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet . In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled Prime Minister, President of the Government, Premier, etc....
, the latter is usually termed prime minister
Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of Cabinet in the Executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician....
, premier
Premier

A premier is a title for the head of government in some countries.In many nations, the title "premier" is used interchangeably with "prime minister": for example, the "Italy Premier" is the same person as the "Italian President of the Council of Ministers"....
 (from the French term for "first minister"), president of the minister
Minister

Minister can mean several things:* Minister , a Christian who ministers in some way.* Minister , the rank of diplomat directly below ambassador....
s' council, or chancellor
Chancellor

Chancellor or chancellour is an official title used in countries whose civilization has arisen directly or indirectly out of the Roman Empire....
. Depending on what the president's specific duties are (for example, advisory role in the formation of a government after an election), and varying by convention, the president's role may range from the ceremonial and apolitical to influential and highly political. The Prime Minister is responsible for managing the policies and the central government. The rules for appointing the president and the leader of the government, in some republics permit the appointment of a president and a prime minister who have opposing political convictions: in France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, when the members of the ruling cabinet and the president come from opposing political factions, this situation is called cohabitation
Cohabitation (government)

Cohabitation in government occurs in semi-presidential systems, such as France's system, when the president of France is from a different political party than the majority of the members of parliament....
. In countries such as Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 and India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, however, the president needs to be strictly non-partisan.

In some countries, like Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 and San Marino
San Marino

The Most Serene Republic of San Marino is a country in the Apennine Mountains. It is a landlocked country Enclave and exclave, completely surrounded by Italy....
, the head of state is not a single person but a committee (council) of several persons holding that office. The Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
 had two consul
Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Roman Empire. The title was also used in other city states, and revived in modern states, notably French Republic before the Napoleon I of Franceic counter-revolution....
s, appointed for a year. 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 maior (the consul in power) and of consul suffectus (the subordinate consul who retained some independence, and held certain veto powers over the consul maior) 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
Representative democracy

File:Electoral democracies.pngRepresentative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of Election individuals representing the people, as opposed to either autocracy or direct democracy....
, examples such as the post-1970 Syrian Arab Republic
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
 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 Emperor
Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
s were given their head of state powers gradually in a government system that in appearance did not originally much differ from the Roman Republic.

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 impact by the people on the country's government can be exerted to the extent that they appear to have the power to have their monarch replaced by another one.

The often assumed "mutual exclusiveness" of monarchies and republics as forms of government is thus not to be taken too literally, and largely depends on circumstances:
  • Autocrats
    Autocracy

    An autocracy is a form of government in which the political power is held by a single, self-appointed ruler. The term autocrat is derived from the Greek language word 'a?t????t?? ....
     might try to give themselves a democratic tenure by calling themselves president (or princeps
    Princeps

    The Latin word Princeps means exactly 'a prime'. This article is devoted to a number of specific historical meanings the word took, by far the most important of which follows first....
     or princeps senatus
    Princeps senatus

    The princeps senatus was the first member by precedence of the Roman Senate. Although officially out of the cursus honorum and owning no imperium, this office brought enormous prestige to the senator holding it....
     in the case of Ancient Rome
    Ancient Rome

    Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
    ), and the form of government of their country "republic", instead of using a monarchic based terminology.
  • For full-fledged representative democracies
    Representative democracy

    File:Electoral democracies.pngRepresentative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of Election individuals representing the people, as opposed to either autocracy or direct democracy....
     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
Political science

Political science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior....
 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
Political philosophy

Political philosophy is the study of questions about the city, government, politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what makes a The purpose of government, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it should take and why, what t...
 is treated in republicanism
Republicanism

Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by other means than hereditary, often elections....
. 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.

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, not choosing a monarch as head of state could as well be a practical rather than an ideological consideration. Such "practical" considerations could be, for example, a situation where there was no monarchical candidate readily available. However, for the states created during or shortly after the Enlightenment the choice was always deliberate: republics created in that period inevitably had anti-monarchical characteristics. For the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 the opposition of some to the British Monarchy played a 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
French Fifth Republic

The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current Republicanism Constitution of France of France, which was introduced on October 5, 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing a parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system....
 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

Before several Reformation
Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe. It is thought to have begun in 1517 with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses and may be considered to have ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648....
 movements established themselves in Europe, changes in the religious landscape rarely had any relation to the form of government adopted by a country. As an example, Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
's transition from polytheism
Polytheism

Polytheism is the belief in or worship of multiple deities, such as gods and goddesses. These are usually assembled into a Pantheon , along with their own mythology and rituals....
 to Christianity
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
 did not mark the end of the Roman emperor
Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
's role in government. Similarly, late Middle Age
Middle age

Middle age is the period of life beyond Young adult hood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings....
 republics, like Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
, emerged without questioning the religious standards set by the Roman Catholic church.

This would change, for instance, by the cuius regio, eius religio
Cuius regio, eius religio

Cuius regio, eius religio is a List of Latin phrases that means "Whose realm, his religion". In other words, the religion of the monarch or other god Emperor would be the religion of the people....
 from the Treaty of Augsburg (1555): this treaty, applicable in the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early modern Europe under a Holy Roman Emperor....
 and affecting the numerous (city-)states of Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, ordained citizens to follow the religion of their ruler, whatever Christian religion that ruler chose - apart from Calvinism
Calvinism

Calvinism is a theology system and an approach to the Christian life that emphasizes the rule of God over all things. It was developed by several theologians, but it bears the name of the French Protestant Reformation John Calvin because of his prominent influence on it and because of his role in the confessional and ecclesiastical debates t...
 (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
Edict of Nantes

The Edict of Nantes was issued on 13 April 1598 by Henry IV of France to grant the Calvinism Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholicism....
 (1598), by the Edict of Fontainebleau
Edict of Fontainebleau

The Edict of Fontainebleau was an edict issued by Louis XIV of France of France, also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes of 1598, which had granted to the Huguenots the right to worship their religion without persecution from the state....
 (1685). In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 and in Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
 the respective monarchs had each established their favoured brand of Christianity, so that by the time of the Enlightenment in Europe (including the depending colonies
Colony

In politics and in history, a colony is a Territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies....
) there was not a single absolute monarchy that tolerated another religion than the official one of the state.

Republics may diminish the influence of religion
An important reason why people could choose their society to be organized as a republic is the prospect of staying free of state religion
State religion

A state religion is a religion body or creed officially endorsed by the state. Practically, a state without a state religion is called a secular state....
: 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 pharaoh
Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, only during the New Kingdom, specifically, during the middle of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
s and some emperors this could even lead to a religion where the monarchs (or their dynasty) were endowed with a god-like status (see for example imperial cult
Imperial cult

An Imperial cult is a form of state religion in which an emperor, or a dynasty of emperors , are worshiped as messiahs, demigods or deity. "Cult " here is used to mean "worship," not in the modern pejorative sense....
). On a different scale, kingdoms can be entangled in a specific flavour of religion: Catholicism
Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its Theology and doctrines, its Catholic liturgy, Ethics, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
 in Belgium
Belgium

* A small German-speaking Community of Belgium exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the history of Belgium and a complex Communities and regions of Belgium....
, Church of England
Church of England

The Church of England is the State religion Christianity Ecclesia in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches....
 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy

The word orthodox, from Greek language orthodoxos "having the right opinion," from orthos + Doxa , is typically used to mean adhering to the accepted or traditional and established faith, especially in religion....
 in Tsar
Tsar

Tsar or czar , occasionally spelled csar or tzar in English language, is a slavs term designating certain monarchs.Originally, the title Czar meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term, that is, a ruler who has the same rank as a Ancient Rome or Byzantine emperor due to recognition by another emperor or...
istic Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
 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
    United States

    The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
    : the Founding Fathers, seeing that no single religion would do for all Americans, adopted the principle that the federal government would neither support nor prohibit any established religion (as had Connecticut and Rhode Island, although Rhode Island and Connecticut are part of the U.S.).
  • Besides being anti-monarchial, the French Revolution
    French Revolution

    The French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudalism for the aristocracy and Roman Catholic Church clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on Age of Enlightenment principles of cit...
    , leading to the first French Republic, was at least as much anti-religious, and led to the confiscation, pillage and/or destruction of many abbey
    Abbey

    An abbey , is a Christianity monastery or convent, under the government of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community....
    s, beguinage
    Béguinage

    A B?guinage is a collection of small buildings used by Beguines, which were several lay sisterhoods of the Roman Catholic Church, founded in the 13th century in the Low Countries, of religious women who sought to serve God without retiring from the world....
    s, churches and other religious buildings and/or communities. Although the French revolutionaries tried to institute civil religions to replace "uncivic" Catholicism, nevertheless, up to the Fifth Republic
    French Fifth Republic

    The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current Republicanism Constitution of France of France, which was introduced on October 5, 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing a parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system....
    , laïcité
    Laïcité

    In French language, la?cit? is a France concept of a secular society, connoting the absence of religious involvement in government affairs as well as absence of government involvement in religious affairs ....
     can be seen to have a much more profound meaning in republican France
    France

    France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
     than in neighbouring countries ruled as monarchies.


Several states that called themselves republics have been fiercely anti-religious. This is particularly true for communist
Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
 republics like the (former) Soviet Republics
Republics of the Soviet Union

The Republics of the Soviet Union were, according to the Article 76 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution, Sovereign Soviet Socialist states that had united with other Soviet Republics to become the Soviet Union....
, North Vietnam
North Vietnam

The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , or less commonly, Vietnamese Democratic Republic was an effective state all over Vietnam from 1945 until the partition of Vietnam in 1954....
, and North Korea
North Korea

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula....
.

Other republics may promote a particular religion
Some countries or states preferred to organise themselves as a republic, precisely because it allows them to establish a more or less obligatory state religion in their constitution. Islamic republic
Islamic republic

Islamic Republic is the name given to several states in the Muslim world including the Islamic Republics of Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Mauritania....
s generally take this approach, but the same is also true, to varying degrees, in the Protestant
Protestantism

Protestantism is a movement within Christianity that originated in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. It is considered to be one of the three principal traditions of Christianity, together with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy....
 republic that originated in the Netherlands
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
 during the Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
,, 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
Millet (Ottoman Empire)

Millet is an Ottoman Turkish language term for a confessional community in the Ottoman Empire. In the 19th century, with the Tanzimat reforms, the term started to refer to legally protected religious minority groups, other than the ruling Sunni....
 system had done in the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
) or change to another religion altogether (like the repetitive changes of state religions under the Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lordship of Ireland and claimant to the Early Modern France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII of England....
 / Edward VI
Edward VI of England

Edward VI became List of English monarchs and King of Ireland on 28 January 1547 and was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII of England and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first Protestantism ruler....
 / Mary I
Mary I of England

Mary I , was Queen of England and Monarchy of Ireland from 19 July 1553 until her death. The fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty, she is remembered for restoring England to Roman Catholicism after succeeding her short-lived half brother, Edward VI of England, to the English throne....
 / Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was List of English monarchs and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the House of Tudor....
  succession of monarchs in England). An approach such as this, of an ideal republic based on a consolidated religious foundation, was an important factor in the overthrow of the regime
Iranian Revolution

The Iranian Revolution was the revolution that transformed Iran from a Iranian monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic....
 of the Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, List of kings of Persia, , styled His Imperial Majesty, and holding the imperial titles of Shahanshah , and Aryamehr , was the monarchy of Iran from September 16, 1941, until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on February 11, 1979....
 in Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
, to be replaced by a republic with influential ayatollah
Ayatollah

Ayatollah is a high ranking title given to Usuli Twelver Shia Islam clergy. Those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in Hawza....
s (which is the term for religious leaders in that country), the most influential, as well as the highest ranking political authority of the republic, is known as the "supreme leader
Supreme Leader of Iran

"Supreme Leader" redirects here. This article is about Iran's leader. For Soviet Union's leader, see; General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union....
".

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
Res publica

Res publica is a Latin phrase, literally meaning "public issue" or "public matter". It is the origin of the word 'republic', though translations vary widely according to the context....
). Indeed, the word for "republic" in Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 is dimokratia, the same for "democracy". This association between "republic" and "democracy" is however far from a general understanding, even if acknowledging that there are several forms of democracy
Democracy (varieties)

Here is a partial list of varieties of democracy....
. This section tries to give an outline of which concepts of democracy are associated with which types of republics.

As a preliminary remark, the concept of "one equal vote per adult" did not become a generically-accepted principle in democracies until around the middle of the 20th century: before that in all democracies the right to vote
Suffrage

Suffrage is the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right. In that context, it is also called political franchise or simply the franchise....
 depended on one's financial situation, sex
Sex

In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetics traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into male and female types ....
, race, age, or a combination of these and other factors. Many forms of government in previous times termed "democracy", including for instance the Athenian democracy
Athenian democracy

Athenian democracy developed in the Ancient Greece city-state of Classical Athens, comprising the central city-state of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica, around 500 BC....
, would, when transplanted to the early 21st century be classified as plutocracy
Plutocracy

Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth.In a plutocracy, the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low....
 or a broad oligarchy
Oligarchy

Oligarchy is a form of government where political power effectively rests with a small Elitism segment of society distinguished by royalty, wealth, family, military influence or occult spiritual hegemony....
, because of the rules on how votes were counted.

In the West
Western world

The term Western world, the West or the Occident can have multiple meanings dependent on its context . Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical circumstances....
, there was a convergence towards representative democracy
Representative democracy

File:Electoral democracies.pngRepresentative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of Election individuals representing the people, as opposed to either autocracy or direct democracy....
, for republics as well as monarchies, from the Enlightenment on. In particular, the fear of mob rule concerned many, like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, who supported representative democracies. A direct democracy instrument like a referendum
Referendum

A referendum , ballot question, or plebiscite is a direct vote in which an entire Constituency is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal....
 is still basically mistrusted in many of the countries that adopted representative democracy. Nonetheless, some republics like Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 have a great deal of direct democracy in their state organisation, with several issues put before the people by referendum every year.

Marxism
Marxism

Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism holds at its core a Marxist analysis of Critique of capitalism and a theory of social change....
 inspired state organisations that, at the height of the Cold War
Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
, had barely more than a few external appearances in common with Western types of democracies, notwithstanding that on an ideological level Marxism and communism
Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
 sought to empower proletarians. A Communist republic like Fidel Castro's
Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary leader who was prime minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976 and then president, premier until his resignation from the office in February 2008....
 Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
 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
Grassroots democracy

Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing politics processes where as much decision-making authority as practical is shifted to the organization's lowest geographic level of organization....
, but connotations may vary.

Some of the hardline totalitarianism
Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is a concept used to describe political systems whereby a state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private life. Totalitarian regimes or movements maintain themselves in political power by means of an official all-embracing ideology and propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, single-party st...
 lived on in the East, even after the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain

The Iron Curtain was the symbolic, ideological, and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991....
 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. In fact, the phrases "People's Republic" and/or "Democratic Republic" were part of the official titles of many Marxist states during the Cold War, including East Germany, North Korea
North Korea

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula....
, Mongolia
Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and People's Republic of China to the south, east and west....
, and today's People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
. 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

Like Anti-monarchism and religious differences, republicanism
Republicanism

Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by other means than hereditary, often elections....
 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.

There is however, for instance, no doubt that republicanism was a founding ideology of the United States of America and remains at the core of American political values. See Republicanism in the U.S.

In antiquity
In ancient India
Ancient India

Ancient India may refer to:*The ancient History of India, which generally includes the ancient history of the whole Indian subcontinent ...
, a number of Maha Janapadas
Mahajanapadas

Mahajanapadas literally "Great Kingdoms" . Ancient Buddhist texts like Anguttara Nikaya make frequent reference to sixteen great kingdoms and republics which had evolved and flourished in the northern/north-western parts of the Indian subcontinent prior to the rise of Buddhism in India....
 were established as republics by the 6th century BC. In the ancient Near East
Ancient Near East

The Ancient Near East refers to early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , Fars Province, Elam and Medes , Anatolia , the Levant , and Ancient Egypt, from the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BCE until the region's conquest by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, or covering both th...
, a number of cities of the Levant
Levant

The Levant describes, traditionally, the Eastern Mediterranean at large, but can be used as a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia formed by the lands bordering the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean, roughly bounded on the north by the Taurus Mountains, on the south by the Arabian Desert, and on the west by the M...
 achieved collective rule. Arwad
Arwad

Arwad – formerly known as Arado , Arados , Arvad, Arpad, Arphad, and Antiochia in Pieria , also called Ruad Island – located in the Mediterranean Sea, is the only island in Syria....
 has been cited as one of the earliest known examples 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
Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
 wrote the dialogue
Dialogue

A dialogue is a conversation between two or more people. It is also a literary form in which two or more parties engage in a discussion....
 that later, in English speaking countries, became known as The Republic
Republic (Plato)

The Republic is a Socratic dialogue by Plato, written in approximately 380 BC. It is one of the most influential works of philosophy and Political philosophy, and Plato's best known work....
 (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 experiments with his political principles in Syracuse
Syracuse, Italy

Syracuse is a historic city in southern Italy, the Capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is noted for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture and association to Archimedes, playing an important role in ancient times as one of the top powers of the Mediterranean world; it is over 2,700 years old....
 were a failure. Cicero
Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Ancient Rome philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Constitution of the Roman Republic. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest rhetoric and prose stylists....
's De re publica
De re publica

De re publica is a dialogue#Literature by Cicero, written in six books between 54 and 51 BC. It is written in the format of a Socratic dialogue; that is to say, Scipio Africanus Minor takes the role of a wise old man — an obligatory part for the genre....
, far from being able to redirect the Roman state to reinforce its republican form of government, rather reads as a prelude to the Imperial form of government
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 that indeed emerged soon after Cicero's death.

In the renaissance
The emergence of the Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
, 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
Classical republicanism

Classical republicanism is a form of republicanism originating from and inspired by the governmental forms and writings of classical antiquity....
". Differences however remained regarding which kind of "mix" in a mixed government
Mixed government

Mixed government, also known as a mixed constitution, is a form of government that integrated facets of government by democracy, oligarchy, and monarchy....
 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 of 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
Statue Place Republique2
The Enlightenment had brought a new generation of political thinkers, showing that, among other things, political philosophy was in the process of refocusing to political science. This time the influence of the political thinkers, like John Locke
John Locke

John Locke was an English philosopher. Locke is considered the first of the British Empiricism, but is equally important to social contract theory....
, on the emergence of republics in America and France soon thereafter was unmistakable: separation of powers
Separation of powers

Separation of powers, a term ascribed to France Age of Enlightenment political philosopher Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu, is a model for the governance of democracy states, having its origins in an ancient idea of mixed government....
, separation of church and state
Separation of church and state

Separation of church and state is a political and legal doctrine that government and religion institutions are to be kept separate and independent from each other....
, 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
Self-interest

Self-interest, originally had a more strictly financial meaning. Closer in English to its current meaning was the word commodity. Only later did it take on the more general senses given below:...
 of the people that were subject to that law, that governments act in the national interest
National interest

The national interest, often referred to by the French language term raison d'?tat, is a country's goals and ambitions whether economic, military, or cultural....
, in ways which are understandable to the public at large, and that there be some means of self-determination
Self-determination

Self-determination is defined as free choice of one?s own acts without external compulsion, and especially as the freedom of the people of a given territory to determine their own political status or independence from their current state....
.

In the United Kingdom and the United States
In his book, A Defence of the Constitutions (1787), John Adams
John Adams

John Adams was an Politics of the United States and the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States , after being the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States for two terms....
 used the definition of "republic" in Dr. Johnson
Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson was an English author. Beginning as a Grub Street journalist, he made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer....
's 1755 Dictionary
A Dictionary of the English Language

Published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the most influential dictionary in the history of the English language....
: "a government of more than one person." But elsewhere in the same tract, and in several other writings, Adams made it clear that he thought of the British state as a republic because the executive, though a unitary "king", was obliged to obey laws enacted with the concurrence of the legislature.

Proletarian republicanism
The next major branch in political thinking was pushed forward by Karl Marx
Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosophy, political economy, historian, sociologist, humanism, political theorist and revolutionary credited as the founder of communism....
, 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
Proletariat

The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons....
.

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 Islam knew a new impulse, leading to several Islamic republic
Islamic republic

Islamic Republic is the name given to several states in the Muslim world including the Islamic Republics of Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Mauritania....
s. 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
Qur'an

The Qur?an is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur?an to be the book of divine guidance and direction for mankind, and consider the original Arabic text to be the final revelation of God....
. In Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
, for example, the state is called a republic because it has an independent plural legislature (the majlis) and two independently chosen executives, a secular president and a religious leader (who is qualified as "supreme"). So, although there is no apparent reason why sharia
Sharia

Sharia is the body of Islamic religious law. The term means "way" or "path to the water source"; it is the legal framework within which the public and private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Fiqh and for Muslims living outside the domain....
 and related concepts of Islamic political thought should emerge in a republican form of government, the movement for Islamic republics is generally not qualified as a form of "republicanism".

Economic factors

The ancient concept of res publica
Res publica

Res publica is a Latin phrase, literally meaning "public issue" or "public matter". It is the origin of the word 'republic', though translations vary widely according to the context....
, 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 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. By this reasoning, the republican emergence of the cities of the Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League was an Military alliance of Trade cities and their guilds that established and maintained trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and Early modern period ....
, late 19th century Catalonia
Catalonia

Catalonia , is an Autonomous Community in northeast Spain.Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km? and has an official population of 7,210,508. It borders France and Andorra to the north, Aragon to the west, the Valencian Community to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the east ....
, and the Netherlands during their Golden Age
Golden age

The term Golden age in ancient Greece mythology and legend but can also be found in other ancient cultures . It refers either to the highest age in the Greek spectrum of Iron, Bronze, Silver and Golden ages, or to a time in the beginnings of Humanity which was perceived as an ideal state, or utopia, when mankind was pure and immortal....
 comes as no surprise, their societies wealthy through commerce, 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
Das Kapital

is an extensive treatise on political economy written in German language by Karl Marx and edited in part by Friedrich Engels. The book is a critical analysis of capitalism....
 or Engels
Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels was a German Social science and Philosophy, who developed Communism alongside his better-known collaborator, Karl Marx, co-authoring The Communist Manifesto ....
' 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 independence) several models exist:
  • Both over-arching structure and sub-states take the form of a republic (Example: United States
    United States

    The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
    )
  • The over-arching structure is a republic, while the sub-states are not necessarily (Example: European Union
    European Union

    The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 European Union member state, located primarily in Europe. It was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community....
    );
  • The over-arching structure is not a republic, while the sub-states can be (Example: Holy Roman Empire
    Holy Roman Empire

    The Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early modern Europe under a Holy Roman Emperor....
    , after the emergence of republics, like those of the Hanseatic League
    Hanseatic League

    The Hanseatic League was an Military alliance of Trade cities and their guilds that established and maintained trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and Early modern period ....
    , within its realm).


Sub-national republics
In general being a republic also implies sovereignty
Sovereignty

File:Leviathan gr.jpgSovereignty is the exclusive right to control a government, a State, a people, or oneself. A sovereign is a supreme lawmaking authority....
 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
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 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
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 was also a supra-national republic, based on the claim that the member states were different nations.

States of the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 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
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, the original 13 British colonies became independent state
State

A state is a political Social contract with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. These may be nation states, State or multinational states....
s after the American Revolution
American Revolution

The American Revolution refers to the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen Colonies of North America overthrew the governance of the British Empire and then rejected the British monarchy to become the sovereign United States of America....
, each having a republican form of government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
. These independent states initially formed a loose confederation
Confederation

Usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution, confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues such as defense , foreign affairs, or a common currency, with the central government being required to provide support for all members....
 called the United States and then later formed the current United States by ratifying the current U.S. Constitution, creating a union
Political union

A political union is a type of state which is composed of or created out of smaller states. Unlike a personal union, the individual states share a common government and the union is recognized internationally as a single political entity....
 of sovereign states with the union or federal
Federal government of the United States

The Federal Government of the United States is the central current reigning United States governmental body, established by the United States Constitution....
 government also being a republic. Any state joining the union later was 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
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
, and the Kingdom of Hawaii
Hawaii

File:Pahoehoe and Aa flows at Hawaii.jpgThe State of Hawaii is a U.S. state in the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia....
, 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. At present the only significant example of this is the European Union
European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 European Union member state, located primarily in Europe. It was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community....
 (EU), which developed in the second half of the 20th century as the European Communities
European Communities

The European Communities were three international organisations that were governed by the same set of Institutions of the European Union. These were the European Coal and Steel Community , the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community ....
. Although it is not common to classify the EU as a "country" (though it does operate as a federation
Federation

A federation is a Political union comprising a number of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the state is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a Unilateralism decision of the central government....
 in some fields), the organisation of the European Union
Institutions of the European Union

There are currently five institutions of the European Union which govern the Union. They are outlined in the treaties of the European Union in the following order: the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union ; the European Commission, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Auditors....
 is based on a republican system in that there is no hereditary element, rather power is held in a directly elected European Parliament
European Parliament

The European Parliament is the only direct election parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union , it forms the bicameral Institutions of the European Union#Legislature of the Institutions of the European Union and has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world....
 and a Council
Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union is the principal Institutions of the European Union in the European Union . It is often informally called the Council of Ministers or just the Council, the name used in the Treaties of the European Union; it is also called Consilium as a Latin-language compromise....
 of national governments. These bodies operate a joint legislative system headed by an independent executive (the European Commission
European Commission

The European Commission is the executive of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Treaties of the European Union and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
) which is appointed by those two bodies.

However, the members of the EU
Member State of the European Union

A Member State of the European Union is any one of the 27 sovereign nation states that have acceded to the European Union since its de facto inception in 1951 as the European Coal and Steel Community ....
 are not all republics. It is the most common system but being a republic is not a condition for membership — only that there is a working democracy (hence, constitutional monarchies
Constitutional monarchy

A constitutional monarchy is a form of constitutional government, where in either an elected or hereditary monarch is the head of state, unlike in an absolute monarchy, wherein the king or the queen is the sole source of political power, as he or she is not legally bound by the constitution....
 are allowed, but absolute monarchies
Absolute monarchy

Absolute monarchy is a monarchy form of government where the king or queen has absolute power over all aspects of his/her subjects' lives. Although some religious authorities may be able to discourage the monarch from some acts and the sovereign is expected to act according to custom, in an absolute monarchy there is no constitution or legal...
 are not). Hence, while the EU operates as a supra-national republic, some of its members operate a hereditary system for its head of state There is a similar situation in regards to religion in the state, a minority of members have an established state church (though there is freedom of religion) but the EU itself has no such institutional element which is biased to a particular faith.

Examples of republics

In the early 21st century, most states that are not monarchies label themselves as republics either in their official names or their constitutions. There are a few exceptions: the Libya
Libya

Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
n Arab Jamahiriya
Jamahiriya

Jamahiriya is an Arabic language term generally translated as "state of the masses." The term, a neologism coined by Muammar al-Gaddafi, is intended to be a generic term describing a type of state, like a "republic ruled by the masses."...
, Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
 and the Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
n Federation
Federation

A federation is a Political union comprising a number of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the state is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a Unilateralism decision of the central government....
. Israel, Russia, and Libya would meet many definitions of the term republic, however.

Since the term republic is so vague by itself, many states felt it necessary to add additional qualifiers in order to clarify what kind of republics they claim to be. Here is a list of such qualifiers and variations on the term "republic":
  • Without other qualifier than the term Republic - for example France
    France

    France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
     and Turkey
    Turkey

    Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
    .
  • Constitutional republic
    Constitutional republic

    A constitutional republic is a state where the head of state and other officials are election as Representation of the people, and must govern according to existing constitutional constitutional law that limits the government's power over citizens....
     - A constitutional republic is a state where the head of state and other officials are elected as representatives of the people and must govern according to existing constitutional law that limits the government's power over citizens. There are a number of distinct forms of constitutional republics. In a mixed constitutional republic, executive, legislative, and judicial powers are separated into distinct branches so that no individual or group has absolute power and the power of the majority of the population is checked by only allowing them to elect representatives. The fact that a constitution exists that limits the government's power, makes the state constitutional. That the head(s) of state and other officials are chosen by election, rather than inheriting their positions, and that their decisions are subject to judicial review makes a state republican.-United States
    United States

    The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
  • Parliamentary republic
    Parliamentary republic

    A parliamentary republic or parliamentary constitutional republic is a form of a republic which operates under a parliamentary system of government ....
     - a republic with an elected Head of state, but where the Head of state and Head of government are kept separate with the Head of government retaining most executive powers, or a Head of state akin to a Head of government, elected by a Parliament.
  • Federal republic
    Federal republic

    A federal republic is a federation of states with a republic form of government. A federation is the central government. The states in a federation also maintain all sovereignty that they do not yield to the federation....
    , confederation
    Confederation

    Usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution, confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues such as defense , foreign affairs, or a common currency, with the central government being required to provide support for all members....
     or federation
    Federation

    A federation is a Political union comprising a number of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the state is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a Unilateralism decision of the central government....
     - a federal union of states or provinces with a republican form of government. Examples include Argentina
    Argentina

    Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
    , Austria
    Austria

    Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
    , Brazil
    Brazil

    Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
    , Germany
    Germany

    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
    , India
    India

    India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
    , Russia
    Russia

    Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
     and Switzerland
    Switzerland

    Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
    .
  • Islamic Republic
    Islamic republic

    Islamic Republic is the name given to several states in the Muslim world including the Islamic Republics of Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Mauritania....
     - Countries like Afghanistan
    Afghanistan

    Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
    , Pakistan
    Pakistan

    Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
    , Iran
    Iran

    Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
     are republics governed in accordance with Islamic law. (Note: Turkey
    Turkey

    Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
     is a distinct exception and is not included in this list; while the population is predominantly Muslim, the state is a staunchly secular republic.)
  • Arab Republic - for example, Syria
    Syria

    Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
     its name reflecting its theoretically pan-Arab Ba'athist government.
  • People's Republic
    People's Republic

    People's Republic is a title that has often been used by Marxism-Leninism governments to describe their state. The motivation for using this term lies in the claim that Marxist-Leninists govern in accordance with popular sovereignty of the vast majority of the people, and, as such, a Marxist-Leninist republic is a people's republic....
     - Countries like China
    People's Republic of China

    The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
    , North Korea
    North Korea

    North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula....
     are meant to be governed for and by the people, but generally without direct elections. Thus, they use the term People's Republic, which was shared by many past Communist state
    Communist state

    Communist state is a term used by many political scientists to describe a form of government in which the state operates under a single-party state and declares allegiance to Marxism-Leninism or a derivative thereof....
    s.
  • Democratic Republic - Tends to be used by countries who have a particular desire to emphasize their claim to be democratic; these are typically Communist states and/or ex-colonies
    Colonialism

    Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over Territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler or exploitation colony in which Indigenous people populations are direct rule, Population transfers, or Genocide....
    . Examples include the German Democratic Republic
    German Democratic Republic

    The German Democratic Republic was a self-declared socialist state created in the Soviet Zone of occupied Germany and the East Berlin of Allied Occupation Zones in Germany....
     (no longer in existence) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
    Democratic Republic of the Congo

    The Democratic Republic of the Congo , is a country in central Africa with a small length of Atlantic coastline. It is the third largest list of African countries in order of geographical area....
    .
  • Commonwealth
    Commonwealth

    The England noun commonwealth dates from the fifteenth century. The original phrase "common-wealth" or "the common weal" comes from the old meaning of "wealth," which is "well-being." The term literally meant "common well-being." Thus commonwealth originally meant a state or nation-state governed for the common good as opposed to an autho...
     (Rzeczpospolita
    Rzeczpospolita

    Rzeczpospolita is a Polish language word for "republic" or "commonwealth", a calque translation of the Latin expression res publica .The word rzeczpospolita has been used in Poland since at least 16th century, originally a generic term to denote any state with a republican or similar form of government....
    ) - Both words (English and Polish) are derived from the Latin word res publica (literally "common affairs"). Used for both the current Republic of Poland, and the old Nobility Commonwealth.
  • Free state
    Free state (government)

    Free state is a term occasionally used in the official titles of some states.In principle the title asserts and emphasises the freedom of the state in question, but what this actually means varies greatly in different contexts:...
     - Sometimes used as a label to indicate implementation of, or transition from a monarchical
    Monarchy

    A monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged in an individual, who is the head of state, often for Life tenure or until abdication, and "is wholly set apart from all other members of the state." The person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch....
     to, a republican form of government. Used for the Irish Free State
    Irish Free State

    The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand....
     (1922–1937) under an Irish Republican
    Irish Republicanism

    Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the Irish nationalist belief that all of Ireland should be a single independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union 1800, the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland....
     government, while still remaining associated with the British Empire
    British Empire

    The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, and other Dependent territory ruled or administered by the United Kingdom , that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries....
    .
  • Venezuela
    Venezuela

    Venezuela , officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a country on the northern coast of South America.The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea....
     has been using, since the adoption of the 1999 constitution, the title of Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
  • Other modifiers are rooted in tradition and history and usually have no real political meaning. San Marino
    San Marino

    The Most Serene Republic of San Marino is a country in the Apennine Mountains. It is a landlocked country Enclave and exclave, completely surrounded by Italy....
    , for instance, is the "Most Serene Republic" while Uruguay
    Uruguay

    Uruguay is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.7 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area....
     is "República Oriental", which implies it lies on the eastern bank of the Uruguay River
    Uruguay River

    The Uruguay River is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and makes boundary with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia, Argentina from the other two countries....
    .


Republics in political theory

In political theory and political science, the term "republic" is generally applied to a state
State

A state is a political Social contract with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. These may be nation states, State or multinational states....
 where the government's political power
Political power

Political power is a type of power held by a political organization in a society which allows administration of some or all of public resources, including labour, and wealth....
 depends solely on the consent, however nominal, of the people governed. This usage leads to two sets of problematic classification. The first are states which are oligarchical in nature, but are not nominally hereditary, such as many dictatorship
Dictatorship

A dictatorship is usually defined as an Autocracy form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator, without hereditary ascension....
s, the second are states where all, or almost all, real political power is held by democratic institutions, but which have a monarch as nominal head of state, generally known as constitutional monarchies (occasionally called "crowned republics"). The first case causes many outside the state to deny that the state should, in fact, be seen as a Republic. In many states of the second kind there are active "republican" movements that promote the ending of even the nominal monarchy, and the semantic problem is often resolved by calling the state a democracy
Democracy

Democracy is a form of government in which power is held directly or indirectly by citizens under a free electoral system. It is derived from the Greek language d?????at?a , "popular government" which was coined from d???? , "people" and ???t?? , "rule, strength" in the middle of the 5th-4th century BC to denote the political syst...
.

Generally, political scientists try to analyse underlying realities, not the names by which they go: 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 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
German Empire

The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of William I, German Emperor as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became Weimar republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of William II, German Emperor ....
 were both abolished by the terms of the peace treaty after the war, the Russian Empire overthrown by the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union....
. 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-World War I 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.

Per se political theorists, and particularly historians of political thought, tend to use republic as a term-of-art, applying it exclusively to the particular form of government expounded in Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy
Discourses on Livy

The Discourses on Livy is a work of political history and philosophy composed in the early 16th century by the famed Florentine public servant and political theorist Niccol? Machiavelli , best known as the author of The Prince....
. On this account, the essential characteristic of republican governance is the sharing of power between a unitary leader, an aristocratic institution, and a plebeian institution. Machiavelli argues that the counterbalancing of these three interests leads to a sounder and more stable government than monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy alone could. This understanding of the term has seen recent renaissance in the work of theorists such as Philip Pettit
Philip Pettit

Philip Noel Pettit is an Ireland philosopher and political theorist.Born in Ballygar, County Galway, he was educated at Garbally College, the National University of Ireland, Maynooth and Queen's University, Belfast....
 and Cass Sunstein
Cass Sunstein

Cass R. Sunstein is an United States law scholar, particularly in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and law and behavioral economics....
.

Further reading

  • , Sir Thomas Smyth
    Thomas Smith (diplomat)

    Sir Thomas Smith , was an England scholar and diplomat.He was born at Saffron Walden in Essex, England. He became a fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1530, and in 1533 was appointed a public reader or professor....
    , 1583. (England is described under Queen Elizabeth I
    Elizabeth I of England

    Elizabeth I was List of English monarchs and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the House of Tudor....
     as a republic, the term "mixed" does appear in it. Sir Thomas states that all commonwealths are of mixed character.)
  • Jean Bodin
    Jean Bodin

    Jean Bodin was born in Angers, France, and became a French jurist and political philosophy, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse....
    ,
    Six Books of the Commonwealth ("Six Livres de la République," 1576), Abridged and translated by M. J. Tooley, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1955 (For Bodin, any state is a "république" if it has sovereignty).
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
    Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    Jean Jacques Rousseau was a major philosopher, writer, and composer of the eighteenth century The Age of Enlightenment, whose political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought....
    ,
    Du Contrat Social, ou Principes de Droit Politique (1762)
  • Paul A. Rahe, Republics, Ancient and Modern, three volumes, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1994.
  • Martin van Gelderen & Quentin Skinner
    Quentin Skinner

    Quentin Robert Duthie Skinner is the Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary, University of London....
    , 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 0-19-829083-7; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.
  • Frédéric Monera, L'idée de République et la jurisprudence du Conseil constitutionnel - Paris: L.G.D.J., 2004 -;


See also

  • List of republics
    List of republics

    List of republics is a list of countries or states governed as a republic.For ancient history the assessment of whether a state organisation is a republic is an analysis by retrospect, left to the discretion of historians and political theorists....
  • Republicanism
    Republicanism

    Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by other means than hereditary, often elections....