Right-Populist Movement Invokes Old Republican Tradition

An old idea is back in fashion on the American right: small-r republicanism. Its revival may be a healthy thing with deep American roots, but adopting it as a ruling ethos also presents dangers to important conservative values.

There are four basic pillars of the American way: Our system is democratic because the government answers to the people, republican because we have no king, liberal because we recognize civil and economic liberty, and constitutional because the rules are written down and bind the government. One can add to that list the three key and interrelated structural features of American governance: It is federal, dividing power vertically between different levels of government; it is separated, dividing power horizontally between different branches of government with distinct functions; and it is deliberative, because the vertical and horizontal divisions and the existence of a written constitution combine to make it difficult to produce abrupt and sweeping change.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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An old idea is back in fashion on the American right: small-r republicanism. Its revival may be a healthy thing with deep American roots, but adopting it as a ruling ethos also presents dangers to important conservative values.

There are four basic pillars of the American way: Our system is democratic because the government answers to the people, republican because we have no king, liberal because we recognize civil and economic liberty, and constitutional because the rules are written down and bind the government. One can add to that list the three key and interrelated structural features of American governance: It is federal, dividing power vertically between different levels of government; it is separated, dividing power horizontally between different branches of government with distinct functions; and it is deliberative, because the vertical and horizontal divisions and the existence of a written constitution combine to make it difficult to produce abrupt and sweeping change.