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Republicanism is the political theory that holds that the best form of government is a republic as opposed to a monarchy. Unlike
proponents of democracy, socialism, or communism, modern republicans rarely argue on the
basis of universal principles that a republic is the best form of government in all nations. Rather republicanism is generally a
local political movement that argues for the abolition of the monarchy in a particular nation. Because most monarchs in constitutional monarchies have limited power, arguments over
republicanism in the late 20th and early 21st century are more often about symbolism than about actual transfers of power.
The term republic most commonly means the system of government in which the head of state is elected for a limited term, as
opposed to a constitutional monarchy. Republicanism in this sense is support for
the abolition of constitutional monarchies. This sense is particularly important in countries such as Australia, where the abolition of the monarchy is a major political issue and is largely about the nature
of the relationship between Australia, the United Kingdom, and Asia; and also countries
such as the United Kingdom, where republicanism has never experienced much popular support, but nonetheless has been a
significant minority position.
Republican movements have been successful in France, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Ethiopia, China and Russia. In the case of Italy and Greece, the abolition of the monarchy was intended because the
monarchy had become discredited for cooperations with Mussolini in the former
case, and the Greek generals in the latter.
In the case of Russia and Ethiopia,
the overthrow of the monarchy was in the context of a general Marxist revolution.
Spain has been a rare example in which a monarchy has been restored in the 20th
century.
Another, older and less commonly used definition of the term, uses the term "republic" to describe what is more commonly
called a representative democracy; it restricts the term "democracy" to refer only to direct democracy. See democracy for further discussion of this term usage and its history.
See:
Republicanism in the United States
According to the older definition of the term, the United States of
America is a republic, not a democracy. (Although most people, including most Americans, call it a democracy, they are using
the modern definition, not the older one referred to here). This usage of the term republic was particularly common around the
time of the American Founding
Fathers. In contrast to the "Confederation" under the Articles of Confederation, The authors of the U.S. Constitution intentionally chose what they called a republic for several reasons. For one,
it is impractical to collect votes from every citizen on every political issue. In theory, representatives would be more
well-informed and less emotional than the general populace. Furthermore, a republic can be contrived to protect against the
"tyranny of the majority." The Federalist Papers outline the idea
that pure democracy is actually quite dangerous, because it allows a majority to infringe upon the rights of a minority. By
forming what they called a Republic, in which representatives are chosen in many different ways (the President, House of Representatives,
Senate, and state officials are all elected differently),
it is more difficult for a majority to control enough of the government to infringe upon a minority. (On an unrelated note,
Republicanism can also mean the doctrines of the Republican Party).
Republicanism in Ireland
Historically, the term "republican" in Ireland to those Irish nationalists who sought the overthrow, rather than gradual end,
of British rule, who proclaimed the Irish Republic (not to be confused
with the Republic of Ireland) in 1919. Fianna Fáil, one of the main political parties in the
Republic, refers to itself as 'the Republican Party'. Under Eamon De
Valera, it sought to sever independent Ireland's remaining links with the British Crown, and the establish a republic, which
finally occurred in 1949.
In Northern Ireland, the term is now used to refer to
nationalist groups such as the Irish Republican Army
(IRA), the Irish National Liberation
Army, the Real IRA and their political wings Sinn Féin, and the Irish Republican Socialist Party, some of whom support violence as a means of
establishing a republic (in the more common sense) encompassing the whole of the island of Ireland.
This is in contrast to constitutional nationalist groups such as the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). During the decades of The Troubles the constitutional nationalists have had more support than the
republicans among the minority Catholic electorate. With the recent, albeit shaky, development of a peace process, Sinn Féin's
move away from violence has resulted in increased support and in the recent elections they received slightly more votes than the
SDLP.
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