Overview of The Republican Theory Research Paper

Overview of The Republican Theory - Research Paper Example The Republican idea of freedom encompasses negative liberty, which in essence, roughly encompasses no interference by other individuals or even at least any interference that may be deemed to have been negligent, sufficiently intentional, indifferent or reckless to count as culpable or blameworthy. The notion of a republican liberty can thus be seen to be negative as is the case with the standard liberal idea. The way republicans perceive freedom has roots which can be traced back to the day of the Roman republic. According to the Romans, the simple fact of one not suffering any interference did not warrant to be considered as liberty, they argued that one could in effect be a slave without any master whatsoever, but still be viewed as not being free. According to the Romans, being free was to be of equal or even full party to the Roman law, a free person was an individual who happened to be protected in the same respect as all other persons by the Roman law and in effect was considered to be wholly incorporated as a citizen into the Roman body politic (Braithwaite & Pettit, 2002). Under the republican theory, a person could be considered to fully enjoy negative liberty if the person happens to be exempted from all the constraints that may happen to be imposed by the blameworthy or intentional actions of others in choosing specific given options. These options may include things such as hobbies which he is able to perform with his own intelligence and strength, in effect, these options are those things that the person is capable of doing without any benefit from any unique circumstances or from any of his colleagues. An individual may be said to enjoy full dominion if the person happens to enjoy the same prospects of liberty as all the other citizens, if it is common knowledge to all that the person enjoys this