Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Monarchies vs Republics

Episode Date: October 27, 2021

I’ve had many episodes where I talked about a country being a “republic”. In fact, we often use the word but many people have a mistaken idea about what exactly a republic is. So what exactly is a republic, and how does it differ from a monarchy or other forms of government? What many people think a republic is isn’t necessarily wrong, but it also isn’t exactly right. Learn more about monarchies and republics and the differences between them on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I've had many episodes where I've talked about a country being a republic. In fact, we often use the word, but many people have a mistaken idea about what exactly a republic is. So what is a republic? And how does it differ from a monarchy or other forms of government? What many people think a republic is isn't necessarily wrong, but it isn't exactly right. Learn more about monarchies and republics and the differences between them on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep only to have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow? Thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day, or jumping ahead to tomorrow? That is exactly why Catherine Nikolai created Nothing Much Happens.

Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well, nothing much happens. No drama, no tension, nothing you need to follow closely. Just soft narration, calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest. And millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night, this might be exactly what you've been missing. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are every Monday and Thursday.

The concept of a republic was talked about more in the past than it is today. The founding fathers of the United States talked about being a republic all the time. The Romans fought and struggled for centuries to create and keep a republic before they eventually lost it. And of course, Plato's great work is called The Republic. In the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, in Europe, there were small city-state republics like Venice and Genoa, which were situated between larger kingdoms, duchies, and empires. So what exactly is a republic? Many people think that a republic is just another name for a democracy. However, this isn't exactly the case. While most republics are democracies,

not all of them are. Likewise, some countries which are not republics are democracies. The English word republic comes from the Latin phrase res publica, which simply means a public matter. And the Latin comes from the ancient Greek politya, which roughly means the rights of citizens. The term res publica was first used in its modern context by Renaissance writer Leonardo Bruni to describe systems of government that were not monarchies. So what then is a monarchy? Well, that concept is pretty simple. Basically in a monarchy, you have a single ruler. The person could be a king like in Spain, a queen like in Britain, an emperor like in Japan, a

Sultan like in Brunei, a prince like in Liechtenstein, a Duke like in Luxembourg, or a Pope like in Vatican City. Historically, most states were monarchies. There was some chieftain king or warlord who ruled over a group of people. Their rules and customs might have been different, but the defining characteristic was a single person calling the shots. Here is where I have to get into hair splitting, because this hair splitting is the legality that defines a monarchy today. This hair splitting involves the concept of sovereignty. You may have heard of Queen Elizabeth II referred to as the sovereign. That's because as the sovereign, the state is embedded in her as a person. And this is not an exaggeration. The queen doesn't have a passport. A passport is

something that allows British subjects to travel in the name of the queen. The queen, the queen, The queen doesn't stand for the national anthem because it is literally her anthem. Court cases are argued on behalf of the queen, and the queen is technically the head of the military. A person who lives in a monarchy is technically not a citizen, but rather a subject. Again, I'm splitting hairs because people who live in monarchies are often called citizens, and if you said a citizen of the United Kingdom, nobody would bat an eye. So if the sovereignty in a monarchy is embedded in a single person, then in a republic, the sovereignty is embedded in the people. This is the key difference between a monarchy and a republic. It's not an issue of voting, it's an issue of sovereignty.

Initially, republics were a minority of states. If you were to create a map of the ancient world 2200 years ago, there'd be a lot of kingdoms and empires in just a handful of republics. The largest concentration of republics in the ancient world was found around the Mediterranean. Many of the city-states of ancient Greece modeled themselves after Athens, which was a republic. They overthrew the king of Athens sometime around the 9th century BC. I did a past episode talking about the differences between the Roman kingdom versus the Roman Republic versus the Roman Empire. Rome became a republic by getting rid of their king, Lucius Tarquinius. However, when the republic ended, they still went through the motions of being a republic

without in fact being one. The other ancient Mediterranean civilization which had republics was the Fnishans, Carthage and Tyre were both republics, although they're often overlooked. And the Mediterranean wasn't the only concentration of republics. Northern India had several states, usually rather small, which had what we would call a Republican form of government. The Mahajanapadus was a collection of 16 states in ancient northern India. Many, but not all of them, were republics, including the states of Shakius, Koyas, Malas, and Lakavas. Moreover, the Igbo people in what is today Nigeria had many cities which were organized as what we would now call a republic in that they didn't have a monarch.

In the late Middle Ages, there was a sharp rise in the number of republics in Europe. This mostly had to do with money and commerce. The new republics were mostly small trading states. The members of the Hanseatic League along the Baltic Sea were all small trading republics, and there will be a future episode on the Hanseatic League. Likewise, Venice and Genoa, like I mentioned before, in Italy, were city-state republics that relied on trade. Also, the Protestant Reformation spawned dozens of small republics throughout Central and Northern Europe, including for a time the Dutch Republic. Later, starting with the United States, countries in the Western Hemisphere began becoming independent, all of which eventually became republics. This trend continued into the 20th century to a point where today, over 75% of all countries are at least formally on paper a republic. Before I mentioned that republics are not necessarily

synonymous with democracies. For the most part, countries that are republics would be considered to be democracies. However, it's not always the case. Ancient Rome had very limited form of democracy where only Roman citizens could vote, and the weight of your vote depended on what class you were in. In early America, only free property-owning men could vote. The same sort of voting scenario played out in almost every republic. Even though there wasn't a monarch, it didn't mean that suffrage was universal. There are also some countries that are republics in name only. The People's Democratic Republic of Korea has never had a free election, and the leadership of the country has been passed down from father to son for three generations, just like a monarchy. The flip side to this is that a monarchy can have

democratic elections. For example, Canada and Australia are not republics. They have a monarch, yet they also have open elections. Many modern monarchies are known as constitutional monarchies, or sometimes known as crown republics. They behave as republics for all practical purposes, except they still have a monarch, in whose name everything is done. The biggest difference between a traditional monarchy and an absolute monarchy is if the people can choose to get rid of the institution of the monarchy. For example, there was a referendum in Australia in 1999 on if the country should become a republic, and Barbados just elected its first president and will become a republic in November of 2021. Many times when a country becomes a republic, they will keep their parliament where the prime minister is the head of government,

but they will replace the monarch with an elected president. In countries like Ireland, the president is mostly a ceremonial position with some reserve power such as the power to pardon and the power to appoint judges. This is known as a weak presidential system. In countries like the United States, the president is both the head of state and the head of the government, and this is known as a strong presidential system. Subnational units of government can also be republics. California has Republic of California right on its flag. The U.S. Constitution and Article 4, quote, guarantees to every state in this union a Republican form of government, end quote. That means there's actually quite a bit of leeway in how a state could run its affairs.

In theory, there's no reason why an American state couldn't have a parliament, and instead of a governor, have a premier. They just can't have a monarch. So in today's world, the idea of a republic isn't really that big of a deal when most countries are republics or constitutional monarchies. The functional role of a monarch in a country like Canada is very minor. However, several thousand or even several hundred years ago, it was a very big deal. One of the reasons why the founding fathers of the United States were obsessed with the idea of a republic is because at that point in time, almost all of the republics which had come before had failed. Perhaps that's why at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when Benjamin

Franklin left Independence Hall, he was asked by someone in the crowd if we have a monarchy or a republic. Franklin replied, a republic, if you can keep it. The associate producers of Everything Everywhere Daily are Peter Bennett and Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please join the list of patrons over at patreon.com. And also remember, if you leave a review or send me a question, you two can have it read on the show. Thank you.