When was republicanism founded

A truly republican society, in contrast, depended on the independence and the moral virtue of its citizens. At the time of the American Revolution, the only republics in the world were tiny--the city-states of Italy and Switzerland and the Netherlands. Larger republics, like England during the midth century, had collapsed into dictatorship. One of James Madison's goals in devising the U.

Constitution was to create a republic that would endure despite its large size and that would not have to depend entirely on the virtue of the country's leaders. In the Federalist Papers, he argued that in a large republic, diverse and conflicting interests would balance and neutralize each other. Home » Encyclopedia Entry » Republicanism. Republicanism is a term for beliefs that have defined the American political experiment.

In particular, republicanism stems from a form a government where the people are sovereign. In such a government, virtuous and autonomous citizens must exercise self-control for the common good.

Republican citizens should not seek office or use public office for economic gain. Public officials must subordinate their personal ambitions for the good of the community. A republican citizen also must be prepared to thwart corrupting influences that would lead the nation toward tyranny or despotism.

Republicanism is based on the assumption that liberty and power continually battle. Therefore, citizens must protect a fragile liberty from destructive power.

Perhaps most importantly, all citizens the definition of which has changed over the years in a republic are equal. Republicanism is a complicated idea. Historians seem to agree on this one thing: republicanism symbolized a commitment to civic virtue.

The language of republicanism proliferated in America in the years preceding the American Revolution. American colonists drew from a variety of sources in composing a republican language.

The founding era produced a hybrid theory of liberal republicanism that developed into the democratic republic of the United States of America and subsequently influenced the worldwide spread of representative and constitutional democracy. Proponents of the participatory model of democracy emphasize republicanism more than liberalism, but both systems of political thought have a place in their ideas about good government.

Conversely, advocates of the liberal model of democracy recognize the importance of political and civic participation for the common good, but they subordinate it to the personal and private rights of individuals. There is an ongoing debate among promoters of representative and constitutional democracy about the appropriate blend of these two strains of political thought in the institutions of government and the public life of citizens.

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