Republican Political Theory from Polybius to Pettit
Megan Gallagher | [email protected]
Sample syllabus
Course description
Republicanism is simultaneously one of the most ancient political concepts and one of the
most pertinent to contemporary politics. Its relevance stems from the notion that the res
publica, or “public thing,” is held in common by a people, all of whom have a vested interest
in, and shared responsibility for, the outcome of certain political decisions. Republicanism
maintains that those in authority must be held to account and that only through responsible
political stewardship, civic virtue, and the dispensation of one’s duties as citizen can political
freedom be achieved and upheld. Yet republics have historically been fraught with problems,
from the worries over establishing virtue in Cicero, to the class tensions and imperialist
interests we find in Machiavelli’s Discourses, to the concern for political unity in Rousseau’s
Social Contract. It thus bears asking if and how republicanism is complementary to, distinct
from, inferior or superior to deliberative democracy and liberalism.
Topics to be considered include: the historical development of republican political thought
in the ancient and early modern world; republicanism’s relationship to empire; the role of
civic virtue; competing notions of freedom; and the contemporary (re)emergence of
republicanism and “neo-republicanism” in political philosophy. The final weeks will be
devoted to contemporary work on issues republican theorists are currently contending with,
such as gender, migration, and secularism.
Reading schedule
Week 1 | Introduction: Defining What a Republic Is – And Is Not
Isaiah Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty,” in The Proper Study of Mankind: An Anthology of
Essays, pp. 191-242
M.M. Goldsmith, “Republican Liberty Considered,” History of Political Thought 21 (2000):
543-559.
John Maynor, “The Ideal of Polity,” in Republicanism in the Modern World, pp. 10-32
Week 2 | Roman Republicans
Polybius, The Histories, Book VI
Sallust, The Conspiracy of Catiline
Joy Connolly, The Life of the Roman Republicanism, introduction and chapter 2
Week 3 | Cicero and Civic Virtue
Cicero, On Duties (skim Book II, §52-§87)
Connolly, The Life of the Roman Republicanism, chapter 1
Week 4 | Civic Humanism and the Republican Revival: Enter Machiavelli
Machiavelli, The Prince (Chapters VI-VIII; XXV)
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Machiavelli, The Discourses (Book I, chapters I-VI, IX, X, XVI-XX)
Week 5 | Machiavelli, Libertas, and Imperium
Machiavelli, The Discourses (Book II, chapters I-IX; Book III, chapters I, III)
Week 6 | Anti-Monarchism and Neo-Roman Liberty
Milton, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates
Quentin Skinner, Liberty Before Liberalism, chapters 1 and 2
Week 7 | Montesquieu and the Political Science of Republicanism
Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, selections (including Book 1, Chapter 1.3; Books 2, 3, 5,
8; Book 11, chapters 11.1-11.4)
Week 8| Enlightenment and Republicanism
Rousseau, The Social Contract
Week 9 | American Virtue
John Adams, Letter to Mercy Otis Warren (16 April 1776)
Thomas Jefferson, query 13 on constitutions in Notes on the State of Virginia
Philip Gould, “Virtue, Ideology, and the American Revolution: The Legacy of the
Republican Synthesis,” American Literary History 5.3 (1993): 564-577.
J.G.A. Pocock, chapter 15 in The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic
Republican Tradition
Week 10 | The Revolutionary Tradition and Its Lost Treasure
Arendt, On Revolution, selections
Week 11 | Freedom as Non-Domination
Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government, chapters 2-4
Week 12 | The International and the Global
Lena Halldenius, “Building Blocks of a Republican Cosmopolitanism: The Modality of
Being Free,” European Journal of Political Theory 9.1 (2010): 12-30.
Cécile Laborde, “Republicanism and Global Justice: A Sketch,” European Journal of Political
Theory 9.1 (2010): 48-69.
Philip Pettit, “A Republican Law of Peoples,” European Journal of Political Theory 9.1 (2010):
70-94.
Quentin Skinner, “On the Slogans of Republican Political Theory,” European Journal of
Political Theory 9.1 (2010): 95-102.
Week 13 | Migration and borders
Joseph Carens, “Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders,” The Review of Politics 49
(1987): 251-273.
David Owen, “Republicanism and the Constitution of Migrant Statuses,” Critical Review of
International Social and Political Philosophy 17.1 (2004): 90-110.
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Arash Abizadeh, “Democratic Theory and Border Coercion: No Right to Unilaterally
Control Your Own Borders,” Political Theory 36.1 (2008): 37-65.
M. Victoria Costa, “Republican Liberty and Border Controls,” Critical Review of International
Social and Political Philosophy 19.4 (2016): 400-415.
Week 14 | Gender
Anne Phillips, “Survey Article: Feminism and Republicanism: Is This a Plausible Alliance?”
The Journal of Political Philosophy 8.2 (2000): 279-293.
Stephen T. Leonard and Joan C. Tronto, “The Genders of Citizenship,” American Political
Science Review 101.01 (2007): 33-46.
Marilyn Friedman, “Pettit’s Civic Republicanism and Male Domination,” in Republicanism and
Political Theory (2008)
M. Victoria Costa, “Is Neo-Republicanism Bad for Women?” Hypatia 28.4 (2013): 921-936.
Lena Halldenius, “Freedom Fit for a Feminist? On the Feminist Potential of Quentin
Skinner’s Conception of Republican Freedom,” Rediscriptions 17.1 (2014): 86-103.
Week 15 | Secularism
Cécile Laborde, Critical Republicanism: The Hijab Controversy and Political Philosophy, selections.
Suggested reading
Appleby, Joyce. Liberalism and Republicanism in the Historical Imagination. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1992.
Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1992 [1967].
Dagger, Richard. Civic Virtues: Rights, Citizenship, and Republican Liberalism. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1997.
Goodin, Robert. “Folie Républicaine.” Annual Review of Political Science 6 (2003): 55-76.
Herzog, Don. “Some Questions for Republicans.” Political Theory 14.3 (1986): 473-493.
Honohan, Iseult. Civic Republicanism. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Laborde, Cécile and John Maynor, editors. Republicanism and Political Theory. Oxford:
Blackwell, 2007.
Lovett, Frank. A General Theory of Domination and Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2010.
Markell, Patchen. “The Insufficiency of Non-Domination.” Political Theory 36.1 (2008): 9-36.
Nelson, Eric. The Greek Tradition in Republican Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2006.
Van Gelderen, Martin and Quentin Skinner, eds. Republicanism: A Shared European Heritage. 2
volumes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Viroli, Maurizio. Republicanism. Trans. Antony Shugaar. New York: Hill and Wang, 2002.
Wootton, David, ed. Republicanism, Liberty, and Commercial Society, 1649-1776. Stanford:
Stanford University Press.
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