The Aim of the Conference Series
Republicanism has recently gained renewed prominence in political theory, history, and philosophy. It has become a vital language for thinking about freedom, power, and civic responsibility in an age marked by populism, the personalization of authority, rising inequality, and the crisis of democracy. At its core, republicanism is concerned with public affairs (res publica), sovereignty, and government by law as protection against arbitrary power and as a safeguard of liberty. The delicate balance between the exercise of power and authority and the preservation of liberty has long preoccupied republican thinkers.
Rooted in Roman political thought and the experience of the polis in classical Greece, yet continuously reinterpreted, republican traditions have taken diverse institutional forms, from civic humanist ideals of virtue to mixed constitutions combining participation, hierarchy, and law. Many republics, from Florence to Venice, embodied oligarchic or aristocratic features while still grounding legitimacy in law and the common good. Over time, republican ideals and practices have travelled, expanded, and taken root across different parts of the world, shaping debates about liberty, legitimacy, and collective self-government from the Mediterranean to Eurasia, South and East Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
Despite being a historical idea, partly rooted in dominating practices such as slavery, republicanism remains a vital tool for confronting the challenges of the present, including democratic erosion, the concentration of power, ecological crisis, and the search for civic solidarity. It offers a conceptual vocabulary for rethinking modern institutions through participatory governance, eco-democracy, the defense of the commons and public space, and collective rights and responsibilities.
The conference aims to advance a broader and comparative understanding of republicanism, its categories and approaches (even when they are not explicitly framed within a republican theory) by examining how different societies have conceptualized and practiced them, and by exploring the dynamic relationship between power, authority, legitimacy, and liberty at the heart of republican political thought. Bringing together multiple disciplines and historical experiences, it seeks to illuminate how the idea of the republican ideas, past and present, continues to shape enduring struggles over law, justice, and the common good.
Scholars from all disciplines, from the Venice International University consortium and beyond, are invited to join in. The aim is to consolidate a network of people interested in the project. The objective is to have biennial conferences in the field and convert this event into a permanent workshop. Given our commitment to gender, racial, ethnic, and territorial inclusion, we especially welcome submission from women and non-binary scholars as well as from underrepresented minority groups and academics from the Global South.
A Worldwide and Multidisciplinary Perspective
The main groups of themes we wish to cover:
1) Political theory and philosophy of Republicanism. This is an area of contributions which is most conceptual. It has to do with meta-historical considerations. Its main concern would be to define what the republican tradition is all about, and what are the republican aims and forms of life. If a coherent theory of republicanism is possible, then how does it differentiate itself from its rivals (including populism and liberalism)? Are there different regional or national models of the classical republican tradition? This section could include also issues like Feminism and Republicanism, and a discussion of Republican theory of private property/ownership and the commons.
2) The historical manifestations of Republicanism in ideas, movements, regimes, urban spaces, and the arts. This includes all the approaches which involve rigorous historicization and historical circumscribing: from Greek and Roman Republicanism to the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages and the Venetian, Florentine and Genoese polities and then on to the Dutch and English revolutions; free cities in medieval and early modern Europe – from the Hansa experience to Ragusa; from the American founding fathers and the generation before them to the French revolution and the French and Italian 19th century versions of Republicanism. The US context could be also crucial to understand how republicanism transformed itself into populism. Art forms of Republicanism fall in this area too; including Republican rituals in specific time and place; and manifestations of Republicanism in literature too. A major target is to consider also the manifestation of Republican forms and values in Asia and other parts of the world in specific periods.
3) The study of contemporary political and legal practices which are explicitly or implicitly republican and their future prospects. This area could include both institutional and social practices from below. It could include the study of EU as manifestation of a republic in making. It could involve the study of eco-republicanism, gender issues, participatory budgeting, citizens assemblies, participatory planning, welfare and workplaces, forms of co-management, urban and other commons, movements for the defense of public water, of internet accessibility, of a public space, practices in contemporary arts.
