What Is the Republic?

Conservatism is not an ideology; but conservatism does possess a body of principles, a framework of concepts which endures after the controversies of the hour have faded out of memory. One of the most important of those concepts is the idea of the Republic.

The word “republic” means public things, the commonwealth, the general welfare as expressed in political forms. The idea of the Republic lies at the root of American conservative thought. We have not known monarchy since 1776, and we always have been suspicious of “pure democracy”—that is, of government by the masses, without constitutional checks, protection for minorities, and representative institutions. Our government, as Calhoun said, “is, of course, a Republic, a constitutional democracy, in contradistinction to an absolute democracy; and … the theory which’ regards it as a government of the mere numerical majority rests on a gross and groundless misconception.”

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Russell Kirk

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Constitutional Government

Conservatism is not an ideology; but conservatism does possess a body of principles, a framework of concepts which endures after the controversies of the hour have faded out of memory. One of the most important of those concepts is the idea of the Republic.

The word “republic” means public things, the commonwealth, the general welfare as expressed in political forms. The idea of the Republic lies at the root of American conservative thought. We have not known monarchy since 1776, and we always have been suspicious of “pure democracy”—that is, of government by the masses, without constitutional checks, protection for minorities, and representative institutions. Our government, as Calhoun said, “is, of course, a Republic, a constitutional democracy, in contradistinction to an absolute democracy; and … the theory which’ regards it as a government of the mere numerical majority rests on a gross and groundless misconception.”