...IF YOU CAN KEEP IT:

The common quip that the United States is a 'republic not a democracy' suggests in part the intellectual dimension of this legacy. In addition to the liberalism derived from Locke, Hobbes, and Montesquieu, the Founding Fathers drew considerable inspiration from republicanism, a political tradition stretching back through Italian city-states to the "utmost height of human greatness" (Federalist No. 34), the Roman Republic. 

At this moment of discontent with liberalism and growing flirtation with populism and post-liberalism, it is worth looking back at republicanism in the hope its teachings can help reinvigorate liberalism.

Republicanism is a heavily furcated tradition. Ancient republicans, their early modern students, and the neo-republicans differ in their emphases and their phrasing, each in dialogue with the politics of their times. Quite consistent, though, is a belief in the importance of non-domination, the public good, and continuity. The republican tends to view liberty, the ability to "live under ... [no master] at all" (Cicero's The Republic II.XXIII) and "[enjoy] what one has," (Discourses on Livy I.16) as achieved through the state, not despite it. A good state is therefore one that facilitates liberty and resists the fall into tyranny. In looking to republicanism to aid liberalism, a productive place to begin is with the thinker John Adams referred to as the "first who revived the ancient politics," Niccolò Machiavelli, and his dissection of republics in the Discourses on Livy.

Tweet   @brothersjudd