• What is a republic?
• Characteristics of a republic
• Republic types
• Republic examples
• Republic and democracy
• Republic and monarchy

We explain what a republic is, its characteristics, types and examples. Also, relationship with democracy and the monarchy.

A republic has a government supported by democratic institutions.

What is a republic?

A republic is a form of government and organization of Condition, in which public power is exercised by representatives of the people, bound by a body of laws established for all (that is, a Constitution), and within the framework of a separation of the public powers.

The word republic comes from Latin Res publica, “The public matter”, that is, the sphere of public or State interests. The term was used for the first time around the year 500 a. C., at the very beginning of the republican government of ancient Rome, which lasted until 27 BC. When it became a monarchy.

At that time, the republic consisted of a partial form of democracy, in which an aristocracy (the Patricians) occupied the seats of the Roman Senate, and among them two consuls or vice-governors were elected by the vote of all the citizens free from Rome.

However, what is understood by republic today differs from ancient usage, and generally refers to the rule of law and the separation of public powers. In this sense, the existence of the republic is contrary to the grabbing of political power by a single figure, as occurs in autocracies, or to the lifetime appointment of public offices, as occurs in monarchies.

When we speak of a republic, today, we usually refer to a government sustained by its democratic institutions, in which all citizens are equal before the law. This idea of ​​a republic arose after the French Revolution 1789, in which the traditional French monarchy was abolished. Even so, there is a certain margin of ambiguity around the use of the term, depending on the point of view considered.

Characteristics of a republic

In general, a republic has the following fundamental characteristics:

• Active political participation of citizens, that is, the public and open management of state acts, and the possibility of any citizen capable of taking an active part in political activity.
• Equal citizen representation in institutions, that is, that the State institutions are led by representatives of the people, and that none has priority or priority over the others, nor is it subject to different fundamental rules.
• Liberty and equality before the law for citizens, so that the public and private spheres are separated and have their respective regulatory frameworks, guaranteeing free individual, cultural, economic, social and political exercise.

Republic types

There are different ways to classify republics. For example, based on their respect for democratic values, we can talk about:

• Democratic republics, when their authorities are elected by direct or indirect vote of the people, and the human rights fundamental.
• Authoritarian republics, when power is exercised unilaterally by some political faction, which monopolizes the institutions and violates democratic forms. They can be one-party republics, for example, in which there is only one possible political party: the one that exercises power.

At the same time, we can differentiate them according to their constitution of the executive power in:

• Presidential republics, when the executive power it is in the hands of a president elected by popular vote.
• Parliamentary republics, when the executive power is controlled by a prime minister elected from the legislative power, that is, of the parliament, and its functions are submitted to this institution to a great extent.
• Semi-presidential republics, those that try to combine the two previous cases, electing a president by popular vote, but also a prime minister with whom they must share power. It is known as the two-headed state.

Another possible classification meets the territorial criteria of the State, and distinguishes between:

• Unitary republics, in which the entire country is led by a single center of political power, in its capital, with regional delegations or emissaries appointed from the center.
• Federative (or confederate) republics, in which the territory The total of the country is the sum of the territories of different smaller States, which are associated to govern themselves in a common way, through the federation or confederation system, as the case may be.

And finally, according to the role of religion, we have:

• Secular republics, in which the Church and the religious body lack political power and constitute only moral and traditional references. The state has no religion official, and there is freedom of worship.
• Confessional republics, in which the state exercises a specific religious position, with an official religion that gives the Church or a specific religious body a variable political influence. In some cases, this may be merely formal, but in others the separation of Church and State may well not exist, as in theocracies.

Republic examples

The French Republic is one of the oldest in Europe.

It is not difficult to find contemporary examples of republics: most of the nations of the world are governed by this system. So, for example, we have:

• The French Republic, of a semi-presidential type, one of the oldest in Europe.
• The Russian Federation, a semi-presidential republic made up of 85 “federal subjects”.
• The Federal Republic of Germany, of a parliamentary and federative type. Mention may also be made of his former communist sister, the German Democratic Republic, who has been missing since 1990.
• The denominational Islamic Republic of Iran is based on Shiite Islam, and is governed by a presidential system.
• The Federative Republic of Brazil, presidential court since 1988, when democracy returned to the country.
• The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a state with limited recognition, one-party and semi-presidential type, corresponds to the former province of the Spanish Sahara, much of which has been controlled by Morocco since 1979.

Republic and democracy

In principle, it is not the same to speak of a republic than to speak of democracy, despite the fact that both terms are today indistinguishable in most contexts.

In general, the difference between one thing and the other has to do with the fact that the republic is a method of state administration that can be exercised in an undemocratic way, that is, violating fundamental principles of democracy such as free political exercise, respect to human rights, or the separation of public powers.

For example, most of the socialist republics that existed in the 20th century were built according to the Soviet republican order, that is, from the direct representation of the working people in different committees along a bureaucratic structure.

But these republics were one-party, that is, they did not allow any kind of political participation outside of the official party in power, so all the institutions were part of the party and were controlled by the same elite. Thus, they were republics, but not democracies.

In conclusion, democracy is a system of values ​​for the exercise of power, which contemplates popular election, respect for fundamental rights and the rule of law; while the republic is a system of government that consists of delegating political power to representatives of the people, in accordance with the provisions of the laws and in accordance with the separation of public powers.

Republic and monarchy

The tensions between republic and monarchy have existed since very early times in the history of the humanity. The history of Ancient Rome, for example, bears witness to this: the possibility that the republican order can be subverted and become an empire or, conversely, that an established monarchy collapses and allows the rise of a republic.

However, the great difference between one system of government and another lies in the existence of a monarch, that is, a political office for life, hereditary and that is not appointed by any democratic instance, nor by popular vote. Sultans, pharaohs, kings and queens, protectors of the fatherland, leaders Eternals or other similar designations are, by their nature, contrary to the republican order.