The Civic Republican Revival

Abstract

Beyond the broad republican commitments identified in the Introduction — commitments to civic obligations, the common good, civic virtue and civic deliberation — civic republicanism is a diverse theoretical field and cannot be reduced to a singular or unified set of commitments (from this point on the term ‘civic republican’ will be used with specific reference to contemporary writers unless otherwise indicated). Instead, civic republicanism is better understood as a broad philosophical and political position which permits a number of interpretations. This chapter is concerned with the reasons for the recent revival of interest in civic republican ideas. Its purpose is to establish the context in which civic republican theories have surfaced through a consideration, first, of civic republicanism’s relationship to the liberal- communitarian debate and, second, its relationship to public philosophy. The chapter provides a brief overview of contemporary civic republican thought and locates it in relation to the two standpoints that have dominated political theory over the last forty years — namely liberalism and communitarianism. It goes on to establish links between civic republican ideas and recent developments in civic education, most notably the increase in approaches to civic education framed around the concept of citizenship. The analysis offered in this chapter provides the framework for the deeper exploration of civic republican ideas presented in the remaining chapters of the book.