Entry
Entries A-Z
Subject index
Civic Republicanism
Civic republicanism addresses political concerns that have been extant since at least the Hellenistic period. The tradition favors approaches to social and political life that focus on the importance of civic virtue and the political participation that such virtue entails. It necessarily highlights the dangers of political corruption, the primacy of the rule of law, and the inestimable benefits of a constitution dedicated to a “thick” view of personal liberty expressed as freedom from arbitrary power. In the most potent manifestation of civic republicanism in Western Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, civic republicans drew heavily on classical examples to make their political points. They were especially fond of citing Cicero and his fellow Roman historians, which led to their movement being referred ...
- Loading...