One of Plato's major works on political science was titled Politeia and in English it is thus known as The Republic. The term politeia can be translated as form of government, polity, or regime and is therefore not always a word for a specific type of regime as the modern word republic is. Cicero, among other Latin writers, translated politeia as res publica and it was in turn translated by Renaissance scholars as 'republic' (or similar terms in various European languages). The term originates from the Latin translation of Greek word politeia. Most often a republic is a single sovereign state, but there are also subnational state entities that are referred to as republics, or that have governments that are described as republican in nature. This constitution was characterized by a Senate composed of wealthy aristocrats wielding significant influence several popular assemblies of all free citizens, possessing the power to elect magistrates and pass laws and a series of magistracies with varying types of civil and political authority. The term developed its modern meaning in reference to the constitution of the ancient Roman Republic, lasting from the overthrow of the kings in 509 BC to the establishment of the Empire in 27 BCE. Not all of these are republics in the sense of having elected governments, nor is the word 'republic' used in the names of all states with elected governments. juries) to make decisions by a representative sample of the public while an autocracy concentrates power in very few hands.Īs of 2017, 159 of the world's 206 sovereign states use the word 'republic' as part of their official names. In contrast, a democracy might rely primarily on sortition (e.g. A republic is a system of government where people choose representatives through elections to make decisions in the public's interest.

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