A republic is a form of government in which the country is
considered a "public matter", not the private concern or property of
the rulers, and where offices of state are subsequently directly or indirectly
elected or appointed rather than inherited. In modern times, a common
simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of state is
not a monarch.
Currently, 135 of the world's 206 sovereign states use the
word "republic" as part of their official names. Both modern and
ancient republics vary widely in their ideology and composition. In classical
and medieval times the archetype of all republics was the Roman Republic, which
referred to Rome in between the period when it had kings, and the periods when
it had emperors. The Italian medieval and Renaissance political tradition today
referred to as "civic humanism" is sometimes considered to derive
directly from Roman republicans such as Sallust and Tacitus.
However, Greek-influenced Roman authors, such as Polybius and
Cicero, sometimes also used the term as a translation for the Greek politeia
which could mean regime generally, but could also be applied to certain
specific types of regime which did not exactly correspond to that of the Roman
Republic. Republics were not equated with classical democracies such as Athens,
but had a democratic aspect.
