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See also:REPUBLIC (See also:Lat. respublica, a commonweal or See also:common-See also:wealth) , a See also:term now universally understood to mean a See also:state, or polity, in which the See also:head of the See also:government is elective, and in which those things which are the See also:interest of all are decided upon by all. This is notoriously a very See also:modern See also:- INTERPRETATION (from Lat. interpretari, to expound, explain, inter pres, an agent, go-between, interpreter; inter, between, and the root pret-, possibly connected with that seen either in Greek 4 p4'ew, to speak, or irpa-rrecv, to do)
interpretation of the term. In the See also:ancient See also:world of See also:Greece and See also:Rome the See also:franchise was in the hands of a minority, who were surrounded by, and who governed, a See also:majority composed of men personally See also:free but not possessed of the franchise, and of slaves. Modern writers have often used respublica, and literal See also:translation, as meaning only the state, even when the head was an See also:absolute See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
king, provided that he held his See also:place according to See also:law and ruled by law. " Republic," to quote one example only of many, was so used by See also:Jean See also:Bodin, whose See also:treatise, commonly known by its Latin name De Republica Libri See also:Sex, first appeared in See also:French in 1577. Englishmen of the See also:middle ages habitually spoke of the See also:commonwealth of See also:England, though they had no conception that they could be governed except by a king with hereditary right. The coins of See also:Napoleon See also:bear the inscription "Republique francaise, Napoleon Empereur." Except as an arbitrary term of See also:art, or as a rhetorical expression, " republic " has, however, always been understood to mean a state in which the head holds his place by the choice of his subjects. See also:Poland was a republic because its king had in earlier times to be accepted, and in later times was chosen by a See also:democracy composed of gentry. See also:Venice was a republic, though after the " closing of the See also:great See also:council " the franchise was confined to a strictly limited See also:aristocracy, which was itself in practice dominated by a small See also:oligarchy. The seven states which formed the See also:confederation of the See also:United See also:Netherlands were republics from the See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time they renounced their See also:allegiance to See also:- PHILIP
- PHILIP (Gr.'FiXtrsro , fond of horses, from dn)^eiv, to love, and limos, horse; Lat. Philip pus, whence e.g. M. H. Ger. Philippes, Dutch Filips, and, with dropping of the final s, It. Filippo, Fr. Philippe, Ger. Philipp, Sp. Felipe)
- PHILIP, JOHN (1775-1851)
- PHILIP, KING (c. 1639-1676)
- PHILIP, LANOGRAVE OF HESSE (1504-1567)
Philip II., though they See also:chose to be governed by a See also:stadtholder to whom they delegated large See also:powers, and though the choice of the stadtholder was made by a small See also:body of burghers who alone had the franchise. The varieties are many. What, however, is emphatically not a republic is a state in which the ruler can truly tell his subjects that the See also:sovereignty resides in his royal See also:person, and that he is king, or See also:tsar, " pure and absolute," by the See also:- GRACE (Fr. grace, Lat. gratia, from grates, beloved, pleasing; formed from the root cra-, Gr. xav-, cf. xaipw, x6p,ua, Xapts)
- GRACE, WILLIAM GILBERT (1848– )
grace of See also:God, even though he may hasten to add that " absolute " is not " despotic," which means government without regard to law. The See also:case of Great See also:Britain, where the king reigns theoretically by the grace of God, but in fact by a See also:parliamentary See also:title and under the See also:Act of See also:Settlement, is, like the whole See also:British constitution, unique.
There is in fact a fundamental incompatibility between the conceptions of government as a commonwealth and as an institution based on a right See also:superior to the See also:people's will. Where the two views endeavour to live together one of two things must happen. The ruler will confiscate the rights of the community to himself and will become the embodiment of sovereignty, which is what happened in most of the states of See also:Europe at the See also:close of the middle ages; or the community, acting through some body politic which is its virtual representative, will confine the head of . the government to defined functions.
The question of See also:representation is dealt with separately (see REPRESENTATION), but the conception of a republic in which all See also:males, who do not belong to an inferior and barbarous See also:race, See also:share in the See also:suffrage is one which would never have been accepted in the ancient or See also:medieval world, for it is based on a See also:foundation of which they knew nothing, —the See also:political rights of See also:man. When the Scottish reformer See also:John See also:Knox based his claim to speak on the government of the See also:realm on the fact that he was " a subject See also:born within the same " he advanced a pretension very new to his See also:generation. But.it was one which was fated to achieve a great See also:fortune. The right of the subject, simply as a member of the community, to a See also:voice in the community in which he was born, and on which his happiness depended, implied all " the rights of man " as they were to be stated by the See also:American See also:Declaration of See also:Independence, and again by the French in 1789. As they could be vindicated only by revolt against monarchical governments in the old world and the new, and as they were incompatible with all the convictions which make See also:monarchy possible, they embodied
themselves in the modern democratic republics of Europe and See also:America. It is a See also:form of government not much more like the republic of antiquity and the middle ages than the French sans-culottes was like See also:Harmodius and Aristogeiton, whom he admired for being what they most decidedly were not—believers in equality and fraternity. But it does, subject to the imperfections of human nature, set up a government in which all, theoretically at least, have a voice in what concerns all.
End of Article: REPUBLIC (Lat. respublica, a commonweal or common-wealth)
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