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What Did the American and French Founders Fear About Direct Rule? - Republican Promises and the Struggle for Inclusion | Sleepy Facts About History · Sleepy Facts About History

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welcome to sleepy facts about history today the
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words republic and democracy are often used interchangeably
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but for centuries they were considered fundamentally
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different and at times dangerous to each other
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this episode explores why a republic was not
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automatically a democracy tracing the concept
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from the roman republica and athenian direct
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assembly to the mixed constitutions of the Italian
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Renaissance. It examines how early modern thinkers
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and the founders of the American and French republics
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deliberately designed systems to filter popular
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will, fearing the instability of direct mob rule
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while relying on a restricted vision of civic
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virtue. The narrative also follows how the deliberate
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exclusions built into these republican systems
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eventually became their greatest vulnerabilities.
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In slave populations, women and colonized peoples
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recognized the power of republican promises and
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seized the language of liberty to demand inclusion.
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From the Haitian Revolution to the women's suffrage
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movement, the principles intended to justify
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a limited government were turned against the
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system itself. I wanted to understand why a political
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vocabulary designed to restrict popular rule
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ultimately became the tool for expanding universal
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rights. It is a question that sounds simple until
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you examine the institutions and the historical
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contradictions behind it. Join me for a calm
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look at how the definitions of political freedom
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evolved and how the tension between republican
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promises and democratic demands reshaped the
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modern world. The word republic now slides so
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easily into democracy that we have forgotten
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they were once considered dangerous to each other.
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This is the story of how that forgetting happened.
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It is also the story of the people who used the
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very language of republican liberty to force
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open doors its architects had deliberately closed.
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Most people who hear the word republic assume
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they already know what it means. They picture
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voting, elections, the will of the people. They
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may know that the United States is a republic.
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They may have heard the phrase representative
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democracy. In their minds, these things blend
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together into roughly the same idea. A republic,
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they assume, is a democracy with elected officials
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instead of direct votes on every issue. The distinction
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seems technical, not fundamental. But this assumption
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would have puzzled most people who actually lived
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in republics before the 20th century. For them,
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a republic was not a type of democracy. It was
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something else entirely. It meant government
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without a hereditary king. It meant that authority
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derived from the people were at least from something
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called the people. It meant that officials served
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the public good rather than private interest.
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What it did not mean was that ordinary people
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actually governed themselves. In fact, many of
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the most thoughtful defenders of republics feared
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exactly that. The question this episode examines
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is straightforward. Why was a republic not automatically
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a democracy? To answer it, we need to recover
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a distinction that was obvious to earlier generations,
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but has since collapsed in popular understanding.
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We need to see how political systems that claim
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to derive power from the people could simultaneously
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exclude most people from political participation.
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And we need to understand why those exclusions.
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built into republican theory from the beginning
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eventually became vulnerabilities that republics
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could not defend against the story begins in
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classical antiquity because that is where the
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vocabulary was forged the ancient greeks gave
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us the word democracy it comes from demos meaning
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the people and kratos meaning power or rule athenian
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democracy meant something specific and direct
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Citizens gathered in an assembly, debated policy,
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and voted on it themselves. There were no elected
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representatives in the modern sense. The citizens
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were the legislature. This was radical, unusual
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even among Greek city -states, and deeply controversial.
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Critics saw it as unstable, emotional, vulnerable
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to demagogues. The Athenian experiment lasted,
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with interruptions, for about two centuries.
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It left a powerful memory, but not a widely imitated
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model. The Romans gave us a different word, res
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publica, the public thing or commonwealth. This
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is the origin of republic. For Romans, a republic
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was not defined by popular assembly government.
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It was defined by the absence of a king. Rome
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had been governed by kings in its early centuries,
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according to tradition, until the last king was
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expelled and a new system established. That system
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mixed different elements. There were elected
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magistrates, including two consuls who served
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brief terms. There was a senate, a body of wealthy,
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experienced men who advised and effectively controlled
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most policy. and there were popular assemblies
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which could vote on certain matters and elect
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certain officials, that these assemblies were
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structured to give more weight to wealthier citizens.
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The Roman constitution was, in the analysis of
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the Greek historian Polybius, a mixed government.
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It combined monarchical elements in the consuls,
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aristocratic elements in the senate, and democratic
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elements in the assemblies. The theory was that
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each element checked the others. This prevented
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any single group from dominating and thus preserved
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liberty. This Roman model was not democratic
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in the Athenian sense. Power remained concentrated
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in the Senate and the propertied classes. The
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popular assemblies had real but limited functions.
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Civic participation was valued, but it was participation
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of a particular kind. by a particular class of
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people. The ideal citizen was not someone who
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simply voted. It was someone who possessed enough
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property to be independent. It was someone who
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had the leisure to study public affairs. It was
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someone who could subordinate private interest
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to the public good. This quality was called civic
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virtue, and it was understood to be rare, cultivated,
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and fragile. Without it, Republics fell into
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corruption. Corruption in this vocabulary did
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not merely mean bribery. It meant the decay of
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public spirit. It meant the substitution of private
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ambition for common purpose. It meant the slow
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transformation of citizens into subjects. The
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Roman Republic lasted for centuries, expanded
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into an empire, and eventually collapsed into
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one -man rule under the emperors. But the memory
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of the Republic persisted, with it persisted
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vocabulary for thinking about government without
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kings. That vocabulary would be recovered, reinterpreted,
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and weaponized many centuries later. The early
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modern revival of Republican thought began in
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the Italian city -states of the Renaissance.
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Humanist scholars recovered classical texts that
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had been preserved in monastic libraries or brought
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from Byzantium. They read Polybius on the Roman
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mixed constitution. They read Cicero's De Republica,
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which defined the Republic as the people's affair
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and argued for a constitutional order that balanced
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different social elements. They read Livy's History
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of Rome with its stories of civic sacrifice and
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stern patriotism. And they used these texts to
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think about their own political situation. Niccolo
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Machiavelli. writing in Florence in the early
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16th century, produced the most influential of
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these recoveries. His courses on Livy is not
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a work about democracy. It is a work about how
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republics survive and flourish. Machiavelli argued
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that civic virtue was the foundation of liberty.
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Civic virtue was the willingness of citizens
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to place the common good above private interest.
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He celebrated the Roman Republic precisely because
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its institutions, its religion, its military
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organization, and its social conflicts had sustained
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that virtue across generations. He was not naive
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about republics. He understood that they were
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arenas of conflict between rich and poor. He
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understood that they required manipulation and
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management. He understood that they could be
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violent and unstable. But he believed. that government
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by the people, in the Roman sense, was more durable
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and more glorious than government by princes.
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Even Machiavelli, however, did not advocate democracy
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in the Athenian sense. The people he had in mind
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were not the propertyless multitude. They were
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citizens with a stake in the community, capable
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of bearing arms and participating in public life.
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The fear of the mob, of the tumulto, runs through
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his work. Republican liberty required the people,
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but it also required that the people be guided,
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checked, and sometimes deceived by their betters.
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This Republican tradition crossed the Alps in
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the 17th century and took root in England during
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its revolutionary upheavals. The execution of
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Charles I in 1649 and the establishment of the
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Commonwealth created a practical need to justify
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government without a king. Writers like James
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Harrington and Altonon Sidney drew on classical
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and Machiavellian sources to argue that republics
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were superior to monarchies. Republics distributed
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power, prevented arbitrary rule, and cultivated
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civic virtue. Harrington's Oceana, published
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in 1656, designed an elaborate constitutional
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order with rotating offices, property qualifications,
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and a complex balance of institutions. It was
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explicitly anti -monarchical and just as explicitly
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anti -democratic in the modern sense. The people
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were to be represented, but not to rule directly.
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Property was to be the basis of political participation,
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because only independent men could exercise judgment
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free from dependence and corruption. The English
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Commonwealth collapsed in 1660 with the restoration
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of the monarchy. But the Republican ideas it
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had generated persisted, migrated and mutated.
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They crossed the Atlantic to the American colonies.
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They circulated in France among critics of absolutism.
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They became available as a language of opposition
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when the political crises of the late 18th century
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made hereditary monarchy seem suddenly vulnerable.
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The American and French revolutions transformed
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republicanism from a scholarly tradition into
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a live political program. This is the central
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episode in our story. It was here that the distinction
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between republic and democracy was most explicitly
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debated, most consequentially applied, and most
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revealingly embodied in institutions. The American
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founders knew their classical sources. They read
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Polybius and Cicero. They read Machiavelli, sometimes
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with disapproval of his methods, but respect
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for his analysis. They read Harrington and Sidney.
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They were also deeply familiar with English constitutional
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history, with its struggles between king and
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parliament, its theories of mixed government,
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its anxieties about corruption and liberty. When
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they declared independence in 1776 and set about
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constructing new governments, they faced a genuine
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intellectual and practical problem. They wanted
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to establish governments that derived authority
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from the people. They did not want to establish
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governments in which the people ruled directly.
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This was not mere elitism, though it was partly
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that. It was also a considered judgment about
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scale, stability, and the nature of political
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judgment. The 13 colonies were not Athenian city
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-states. They were large territories with dispersed
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populations, diverse interests, and no tradition
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of assembly government. Direct democracy seemed
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impossible at this scale and dangerous at any
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scale. The people, many founders believed, were
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susceptible to passion, manipulation, and temporary
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enthusiasms. They could be whipped up by demagogues.
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They could oppress minorities. They could vote
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themselves property that belonged to others.
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The challenge was to create a government that
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was genuinely Republican while filtering, refining
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and checking popular will. A genuinely Republican
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government derived from the people and served
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the public good without hereditary rule. James
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Madison made this argument most clearly in Federalist
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No. 10. written in 1787 to secure ratification
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of the new constitution. Madison distinguished
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explicitly between a pure democracy and a republic.
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A pure democracy, he wrote, by which I mean a
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society consisting of a small number of citizens
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who assemble and administer the government in
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person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs
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of faction, a republic by contrast. By which
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I mean a government in which the scheme of representation
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takes place, opens a different prospect, and
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promises the cure for which we are seeking. The
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representative principle was the key. Elected
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officials would refine and enlarge the public
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views through the exercise of their own judgment.
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They would be accountable to the people, but
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not merely mechanical transmitters of popular
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will. This was not a passing distinction in Madison's
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thought. It was central to the constitutional
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design. The House of Representatives would be
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elected directly, but for short terms, from relatively
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small districts. The Senate would be elected
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by state legislatures for longer terms, representing
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states rather than population directly. The president
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would be chosen by an electoral college, not
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by national popular vote. The federal judiciary
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would be appointed, not elected. The entire structure
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was designed to create multiple filters between
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popular opinion and governmental action. It was
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designed to slow decision -making, to encourage
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deliberation, and to protect property and established
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interests against majoritarian pressure. The
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Constitution also embodied Republican exclusions
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that we now find shocking. but that seemed natural
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to most of its framers. Slavery was recognized
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and protected. Women were excluded from political
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participation. Native Americans were treated
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as foreign nations or subject peoples. Property
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qualifications for voting were left to the states,
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and most states maintained them. The people in
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whose sovereignty was vested were, in practice,
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propertied white men. This was not a secret or
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a contradiction that the founders tried to hide.
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It was the design. The republic was meant to
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be governed by a virtuous, independent citizenry.
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And independence was understood to require property.
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The French Revolution produced a different but
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related pattern of republican debate. When the
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monarchy collapsed in 1789, the revolutionaries
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had to decide what kind of government to construct.
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The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
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Citizen proclaimed that sovereignty resided essentially
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in the nation. But who constituted the nation?
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Who would exercise that sovereignty? The debates
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were fierce and consequential. The Abézier argued
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for representative government, distinguishing
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between the nation's passive rights and its active
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exercise of power through elected delegates.
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Others, particularly in the Parisian sections
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and among the sans -culottes, pressed for more
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direct popular participation. They pressed for
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recall of representatives and for assembly democracy.
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The Terror of 1793 -1794 represented, in part,
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the triumph of more radical democratic impulses,
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and a fear they inspired among moderates. Maximilian
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Robespierre and the Jacobins appealed to popular
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sovereignty while concentrating power in revolutionary
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committees. The Parisian crowd became a political
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force that terrified many Republicans. When the
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terror ended and the Directory took power, the
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pendulum swung back toward restricted representation
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and property qualifications. The Napoleonic settlement
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that followed was, in effect, a republic that
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became an empire. It preserved some republican
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forms while concentrating power in one man. What
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both the American and French cases reveal is
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that republicanism and democracy were not simply
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different points on a continuum. They were different
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kinds of political commitment, with different
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anxieties and different institutional implications.
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Republicanism meant government without hereditary
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monarchy, oriented toward a public good, administered
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by representatives who were supposed to exercise
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independent judgment. Democracy meant direct
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popular rule, which most Republican thinkers
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feared as potentially tyrannical, unstable, and
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disruptive of property and order. The Republic
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was meant to be a filter, not a mirror. Yet this
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design contained a vulnerability that its architects
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did not fully anticipate. The language of republicanism
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created promises that the institutions did not
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fulfill. The language included liberty, popular
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sovereignty, the common good, and the rights
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of citizens. If sovereignty resided in the people,
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why did the people not include women? If all
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men were born free, how could some be held as
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slaves? If citizens had rights, why did property
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determine who counted as a citizen? The exclusions
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were built into the system, but the justifications
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for those exclusions could be turned against
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the system itself. This is where our story takes
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its most consequential turn. Republicanism was
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not empty hypocrisy. Its principles had real
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force, even when their original authors did not
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intend them to apply universally. and excluded
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groups recognized this. They learned the language
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of republicanism and used it to demand inclusion.
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The Haitian Revolution of 1791 to 1804 provides
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perhaps the most dramatic example. Enslaved people
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in the French colony of Saint -Domingue rose
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in rebellion against plantation slavery and colonial
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rule. They did so using the vocabulary that the
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French Revolution had made available. They demanded
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liberty, equality, and fraternity. They insisted
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that the rights of man applied to them. They
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forced the French Republic, which proclaimed
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universal principles, to confront the contradiction
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of maintaining slavery in its colonies. The eventual
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abolition of slavery in 1794, its re -imposition
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by Napoleon, and the final establishment of Haitian
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independence, represented a working out of Republican
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promises that the original Republicans had never
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intended to extend so far. The enslaved people
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of Saint -Domingue were not passive recipients
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of Republican ideology. They were active agents
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who seized its language and forced its consequences.
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Abolitionists in the United States and Britain
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made similar use of Republican and natural rights
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language. If all men were created equal, how
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could slavery persist? The contradiction was
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obvious once stated, and it was stated with increasing
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force from the late 18th century onward. The
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American Republic's founding compromise with
22:07
slavery became harder to defend as Republican
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principles spread and deepened. The Civil War
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and the Reconstruction Amendments can be understood,
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in part, as a forced confrontation between Republican
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promises and Republican exclusions. Women's suffrage
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movements across the 19th and early 20th centuries
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drew on Republican language as well. The slogan,
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no taxation without representation, had justified
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American independence. Women applied it to themselves.
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If they were subject to laws and taxes, why did
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they lack political representation? The Declaration
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of the Rights of Man had excluded women from
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its vision of citizenship. Olympe de Gouges responded
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with her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and
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the Female Citizen in 1791. She explicitly mirrored
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the revolutionary document and exposed its limits.
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The struggle for women's political rights was
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long and bitter, but its advocates consistently
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used the language of republican citizenship against
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the republics that denied them. Colonized peoples
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made similar claims. If Republican empires proclaimed
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liberty and self -determination, how could they
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maintain colonial domination? The contradictions
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became particularly acute in the 20th century,
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when two world wars were fought in part with
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Republican and Democratic rhetoric that could
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not be confined to European populations. The
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decolonization movements of the mid -20th century
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represented another forced extension of Republican
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promises to people whom Republican theory had
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originally excluded. This pattern is not a simple
23:54
story of hypocrisy exposed. Republican principles
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generated demands that Republican institutions
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resisted. But the story is more interesting than
24:05
map. The Republican tradition was genuinely committed
24:09
to liberty, to the public good, to government
24:12
without arbitrary power. These were not mere
24:16
masks for elite rule. They were real principles
24:20
with real consequences. But they were also principles
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that their original formulators understood in
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restricted ways. They filtered them through assumptions
24:30
about property, gender, race, and civilization
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that seemed natural to them. The principles turned
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out to be more expansive than their authors intended.
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They created a vocabulary in which exclusion
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became harder to justify over time. By the 20th
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century the distinction between republic and
24:50
democracy had largely collapsed in popular usage.
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Most states that called themselves republics
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had also become representative democracies, with
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expanded suffrage, competitive elections, and
25:04
at least formal political equality. The United
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States, which had been founded as a republic
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explicitly distinguished from democracy, now
25:13
claimed to be both. The two terms merged into
25:17
a single complex idea, democratic republic. Representative
25:22
democracy, constitutional democracy. The original
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anxieties about popular rule seemed quaint or
25:29
reactionary. Yet the original design remains
25:33
visible in republican institutions. The separation
25:36
of powers, indirect election, judicial review,
25:40
bicameralism, federalism, all of these were originally
25:45
conceived as ways to filter, check, and limit
25:49
popular power. They were not designed to express
25:52
the popular will directly or immediately, whether
25:56
they still serve that original function, or whether
25:59
they have been transformed by democratic practice.
26:02
is a question for political scientists and citizens
26:05
to debate. What historians can establish is that
26:09
the institutions were not originally democratic
26:11
in the modern sense. Understanding this helps
26:15
explain both their strengths and their tensions.
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The relationship between republican ideology
26:21
and the expansion of suffrage remains debated
26:23
among historians. Some emphasized the causal
26:27
power of ideas, arguing that republican principles
26:30
genuinely shaped political possibilities and
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made exclusion harder to defend. Others emphasized
26:37
material interests, social movements, and organized
26:41
struggle, arguing that republican language was
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a tool that movements used rather than a force
26:48
that generated change on its own. Most historians
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would now reject any simple causal story in favor
26:56
of a more complex interaction between ideas,
26:59
interests, institutions, and contingency. Republican
27:03
language provided resources. It did not determine
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outcomes. What can be said with confidence is
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that Republican government and Democratic government
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were historically distinct concepts. Republicanism
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challenged inherited monarchy before it consistently
27:20
embraced political equality. And the tension
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between Republican promises and Republican exclusions
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created a dynamic that transformed both republics
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and democracies over time. The listener who begins
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with the assumption that a republic is simply
27:37
a democracy has missed something important. They
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have missed a whole tradition of political thought,
27:43
a set of institutional designs, a history of
27:47
inclusion and exclusion, and a vocabulary of
27:50
liberty that proved more expansive than its originators
27:53
intended. The Republic was not automatically
27:57
a democracy because its founders did not want
28:00
it to be one. They wanted something else. They
28:04
wanted government without hereditary kings, oriented
28:08
toward a public good, administered by virtuous
28:11
and independent citizens, protected against the
28:14
passions of the multitude. They built their systems
28:17
carefully, with filters and checks and qualifications.
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And then they discovered that the principles
28:23
they invoked to justify their systems could be
28:27
invoked against the systems themselves. The people,
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in whose name Republics were founded, turned
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out to include more people than the founders
28:35
had imagined. That discovery was not inevitable.
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It was contested, delayed, and often violent.
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But it was made repeatedly. by those who took
28:47
republican language seriously and demanded that
28:51
republics live up to their own promises.