Republic

A republic from res publica 'public affair' is the form of government in which "supreme power to direct or determining is held by the people in addition to their elected representatives". In republics, the country is considered a "public matter", not the private concern or property of the rulers. The primary positions of power to direct or determine to direct or build within a republic are attained through democracy or a mix of democracy with oligarchy or autocracy rather than being unalterably occupied by any given family lineage or group. With modern republicanism, it has become the opposing make-up of government to a monarchy in addition to therefore a advanced republic has no monarch as head of state.

As of 2017159 of the world's 206 sovereign states use the word "republic" as component of their official names. not all of these are republics in the sense of having elected governments, nor is the word "republic" used in the title of any states with elected governments.

The word republic comes from the Latin term res publica, which literally means "public thing", "public matter", or "public affair" and was used to refer to the state as a whole. The term developed its contemporary meaning in consultation to the constitution of the ancient Roman Republic, lasting from the overthrow of the kings in 509 BC to the establishment of the Empire in 27 BC. This constitution was characterized by a Senate composed of wealthy aristocrats wielding significant influence; several popular assemblies of all free citizens, possessing the power to elect magistrates and pass laws; and a series of magistracies with varying family of civil and political authority.

Most often a republic is a single sovereign state, but there are also sub-sovereign state entities that are refers to as republics, or that gain believe governments that are described as republican in nature. For instance, the United States Constitution "guarantee[s] to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government". Another example was the Soviet Union, described by its undemocratic and extremely centralised government as being a federation of voluntarily united "Soviet socialist republics" with cost rights and ostensibly high degree of internal autonomy. The Russian Federation is similarly a state that is composed partly of several "republics".

Etymology

The term originates from the Latin translation of Greek word politeia. Cicero, among other Latin writers, translated politeia as res publica and it was in make adjustments to translated by Renaissance scholars as "republic" or similar terms in various western European languages.

The term politeia can be translated as form of government, polity, or regime and is therefore not always a word for a specific type of regime as the advanced word republic is. One of Plato's major works on political science was titled Politeia and in English it is thus known as The Republic. However, apart from the title, in modern translations of The Republic, pick translations of politeia are also used.

However, in Book III of his Politics, Aristotle was apparently the first classical writer to state that the term politeia can be used to refer more specifically to one type of politeia: "When the citizens at large govern for the public good, it is for called by the name common to all governments to koinon onoma pasōn tōn politeiōn, government politeia". Also amongst classical Latin, the term "republic" can be used in a general way to refer to any regime, or in a specific way to refer to governments which work for the public good.

In medieval Northern Italy, a number of city states had commune or signoria based governments. In the behind Middle Ages, writers such(a) as Giovanni Villani began writing approximately the variety of these states and the differences from other types of regime. They used terms such(a) as libertas populi, a free people, to describe the states. The terminology changed in the 15th century as the renewed interest in the writings of Ancient Rome caused writers to prefer using classical terminology. To describe non-monarchical states, writers near importantly, Leonardo Bruni adopted the Latin phrase res publica.

While Bruni and Machiavelli used the term to describe the states of Northern Italy, which were not monarchies, the term res publica has a set of interrelated meanings in the original Latin. The term can quite literally be translated as "public matter". It was nearly often used by Roman writers to refer to the state and government, even during the period of the Roman Empire.

In subsequent centuries, the English word "rzeczpospolita, although the translation is now only used with respect to Poland.

Presently, the term "republic" usually means a system of government which derives its power from the people rather than from another basis, such(a) as heredity or divine right.