Republicanism

1. Republicanism Gabriel Glickman

2. Republicanism – key themes • Supplies rival language of politics to the language of kingship. • Originates in Italian city states but spreads out across Europe. • A flexible doctrine – concerned as much with moral and intellectual regeneration as constitutional forms.

3. Republicanism as ‘civic humanism’ • Root of human flourishing comes in service of the polity. • Didactic function of republican texts – practical guides to art of governing. • Search for the rediscovery of classical wisdom. • Cyclical understanding of process of human history.

4. Original purpose of republican texts – defence of Italian city states • Italian republics embattled by encroachment of French, Austrian, Spanish monarchies. • Machiavelli writes Discourses in wake of the return of the Medici oligarchy 1512. • Attempt to understand the contemporary age by rediscovering rise and fall of the Roman Republic.

5. Republican political thought – key tenets • Liberty = self-governance, independence, civic participation. • Virtue – success as well as goodness. • Civic virtue dependent on liberty –ethos of devotion to the common good. • Use ordini of the state to foster virtuous habits in the people. • Liberty + virtue = attainment of grandezza.

6. Republican authors flexible over approved constitutional forms • As much concern with the virtue of the governors as with the institutions of government. • Key test – government has to focus on the common good not private interest. • A republic can be a monarchy as long as prince puts public interest first.

7. Republicanism beyond Italy • Republican project in Italy undermined by collapse of most city states in Italian Wars 1494-1559. • Republican ideas respond to continuing fragility of kingship in time of war, rebellions etc. • Republican ideas often transmitted in discussions of imaginary lands, romances, fantasies e.g. More, Utopia; Sidney, Arcadia; Harrington, Oceana. • Meaning of much Early Modern political discourse – ‘patriot’, ‘common weal’ - strongly influenced by republican thought.

8. Republicanism and the rise of towns • Growth of civic control over schools, hospitals, provision of welfare – underpinned by republican language. • ‘Chambers of Rhetoric’ in Netherlands towns – impart humanist ideas. • Goldie – C17th England the ‘unacknowledged republic’.

9. Court humanism • Wise counsel can encourage kings to rule in public rather than private interest. • Influence on professional state/ court administrators serving European monarchs. • Collinson - ‘Monarchical republic’. • But many court humanist writings underpinned by self-doubt e.g. More, Utopia.

10. Republicanism and rebellion • Republican thought influences: • Aristocratic rebellions. • Religious rebellions. • Development of Calvinist monarchomach ideology – Languet, Hotman, Buchanan: the right to resist a tyrant. • Influence on radical elements of Counter-Reformation e.g. Holy League manifestos against kings of France.

11. Christian republicanism? • Tension between Christian and republican doctrines: pagan, classical roots of republicans. • John Milton – attempts to reconcile two ideas: • Divine Right of Kings blasphemous. • Human liberty a gift bequeathed by Christ’s sacrifice. • Love of country and compatriots = the way to love heaven.