Arevolutionary republic is a form of government whose main tenets arepopular sovereignty,rule of law, andrepresentative democracy. It is based in part on the ideas ofEnlightenment thinkers, and was favored byrevolutionaries during theAge of Revolution. A revolutionary republic tends to arise from the formation of aprovisional government after the overthrow of an existing state and political regime. It often takes the form of a revolutionary state, which ostensibly represents the will of its constituents.[1]
The term also refers to the form of government that theNational Convention favored during theFrench Revolutionary Wars, as France established republics through its occupation of neighboring territories inEurope. Most of theseclient states, orsister republics, were means of controlling occupied lands through a mix of French and local authority. The institution of republican governments as a means of promotingdemocratic nationalism overmonarchies (primarily theBourbons andHabsburgs) set the stage for the appearance ofnationalist sentiment across Europe, which significantly influenced the course of European history (see1830 andRevolutions of 1848).
Today, "revolutionary republic" can refer to various governments in disparate locations. In theUnited Kingdom, it can be defined as those who advocate for the removal of the monarch as head of state, or for the replacement of the monarch with an elected figurehead, as inIrish nationalism, the self-declaredIrish Republic of 1919 - 1922 is described as a revolutionary republic. InAustralia, revolutionary republicanism is closely tied to moderate nationalism, along with opposition to monarchy.
Leading up to and during theAmerican Revolution in the 1760s and 1770s, intellectual and political leaders in theThirteen Colonies closely read history to compare forms of governments and their effectiveness.[2] They were especially concerned with the history ofliberty in England and with the rights of Englishmen, which they claimed were the proper heritage of the colonists. These intellectuals were especially influenced by Britain'sCountry Party (which opposed the rulingCourt Party). The Country Party relied heavily on the classicalrepublicanism of Roman heritage; it celebrated the ideals of duty and virtuous citizenship. It drew heavily onancient Greek city-state and Roman republican examples.[3] The Country Party denounced the corruption surrounding the Court Party inLondon, centering on the royal court. The resulting political ideology was widespread in America by 1775.[4] Robert Kelley called republicanism "the distinctive political consciousness of the entire Revolutionary generation".[5]J. G. A. Pocock explained the intellectual sources in America:[6]
The Whig canon and the neo-Harringtonians,John Milton,James Harrington andSidney,Trenchard,Gordon andBolingbroke, together with the Greek, Roman, and Renaissance masters of the tradition as far asMontesquieu, formed the authoritative literature of this culture; and its values and concepts were those with which we have grown familiar: a civic and patriot ideal in which the personality was founded in property, perfected in citizenship but perpetually threatened by corruption; government figuring paradoxically as the principal source of corruption and operating through such means as patronage, faction, standing armies (opposed to the ideal of the militia); established churches (opposed to the Puritan and deist modes of American religion); and the promotion of a monied interest—though the formulation of this last concept was somewhat hindered by the keen desire for readily available paper credit common in colonies of settlement.
American revolutionaries took a lesson fromAncient Rome. They were determined to avoid the luxurious lifestyles and greed that had destroyed the Roman Empire.[7] A virtuous citizen was defined as one who ignored monetary compensation and made a commitment to resist and eradicate corruption. Republicanism required the service of those who were willing to give up their own interests for a common good. According toBernard Bailyn, "The preservation of liberty rested on the ability of the people to maintain effective checks on wielders of power and hence in the last analysis rested on the vigilance and moral stamina of the people." The duty of the virtuous citizen became a foundation for the ideology of the American Revolution.[8]
