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A republic, quite simply, is a government controlled by the people being governed. A pure democracy in which every governmental decision is put to a vote of the entire body politic is a republic. A government such as the United States of America, in which representatives are elected who then make the decisions is also a republic, we call it a representative republic.
The key feature distinguishing a republic from other forms of government is the fact that in a republic those who are governed have the ultimate say in how they are governed, and if they don’t like the way government is going they have the right to change it, either through personal choice or by recalling those chosen to represent them. The name, derived from the Latin Res Publica, means “a public thing.” So long as those who are governed continue to have the ultimate authority to control government, the government remains a republic. Take away the ability of those who are governed to control the government, and the republic ceases. It is no longer a public thing. In a theoretical sense, it would not matter how that public control was exercised. But in our modern world we normally equate public control with the vote. It has not always been so, and perhaps it need not be so in order for a government to be considered a republic. When our nation was established one house of congress, the senate, was made up of members appointed by the state legislators. While these representatives were not elected they nevertheless had legitimate government authority because they were appointed by the representatives the people had elected. Their position and authority ultimately derived from the people. In a similar vein, judges on the federal level and in many states are not elected, but are appointed by a person or a group of people elected by the public. Even though once appointed, the judge holds his office for life, (usually subject to impeachment or other ultimate control) he is a legitimate member of a republican government because his appointment and authority derive from the public who entrusted that appointment and authority to their elected representatives. In a theoretical sense, the vote may not be the only way to establish a republic, so long as the consent of the governed is the touch stone of political authority. For instance, in nations of the world who do not share our view of a wall of separation between church and state it is possible to conceive of a congress or parliament not composed of members elected from various geographic districts, but of members who represent the various religious factions found in the country. Those members might derive their appointment according to the tenets of their religious faith which might be based on criteria as diverse as theological training or miracles performed. So long as the constituency they represent accept that criteria and consent to the representation, the government remains a republic. If on the other hand the constituency sought to withdraw it’s approval and could not do so, the government would no longer be a public thing. The important thing here is that there is a constituency for each representative that has approved his appointment and has some mechanism to withdraw its support. More on this later when we discuss the importance of constituencies. Copyright (c) 2006 by Blake S. Atkin |
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