Republicanism, republican ideology, and republican forms of government are embedded in the existing law and constitutions of the world's many existing “republics” and constitutional democracies. Republican doctrine, therefore, is the foundation for any attempt to establish a more just social and political order - or to understanding previous attempts to do so.
The Oxford Handbook of Republicanism describes, examines, and clarifies the history, philosophy, political science, and principles of republicanism, the doctrine that government should serve the common good of the people. This commitment to the people and their welfare leads in turn to specifically republican conceptions of liberty, justice, virtue, humanism, dignity, democracy, education, religion, and rights described in the volume. These values inspired revolutions and new conceptions of politics and government across the world. The republican histories of Rome, Italy, the Netherlands, England, France, the United States, and Latin America all reveal a tradition of mutual inspiration to the authors and shared commitment to the authors and values who gave rise to modern constitutional democracy. Forty leading scholars of republicanism from the fields of history, philosophy, political science, law, economics, sociology, and international relations consider not only what republicanism is, has been, and should be, but also the role that republican ideas and institutions could play in overcoming domination and oppression to establish a more free, just, and effective political and global order.
The time has come for a comprehensive and authoritative restatement and reassessment of republicanism. The Oxford Handbook of Republicanism brings a needed clarity and coherence to the field.
