Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Republicanism and Liberal International Theory

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Liberal International Theory Tradition in Europe

Part of the book series: Trends in European IR Theory ((TEIRT))

  • 437 Accesses

Abstract

Republicanism is a theory of liberty centred around the ideals of virtue, active citizenship and a free polis. It is a political discourse which stresses the importance of free citizens participating in an open public sphere. Republicans in both historical thought and practice have sought to secure internal liberty for the polis by expanding republican restraints on power to the international sphere. This tradition of thought therefore views the domestic and the international in a co-constitutive manner. As this chapter shows, modern liberal republicans have looked to the republican tradition to understand the possibilities for political order within Europe.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aron, R. (1976). The Crisis of the European Idea. Government and Opposition, 11(1), 5–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bellamy, R. (2016). A European Republic of Sovereign States: Sovereignty, Republicanism and the European Union. European Journal of Political Theory, 16(2), 188–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bellamy, R. (2019). A Republican Europe of States: Cosmopolitanism, Intergovernmentalism and Democracy in the EU. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bouwsma, W. J. (1984). Venice and the Defence of Republican Liberty: Renaissance Values in the Age of the Counter Reformation. London: University of California Press, repr.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, M. (2000). Federalism and European Union: the Building of Europe, 1950–2000. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavallar, G. (2001). Kantian Perspectives on Democratic Peace: Alternatives to Doyle. Review of International Studies, 27, 229–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christov, T. (2005). Liberal Internationalism Revisited: Grotius, Vattel and the International Order of States. The European Legacy, 10(6), 561–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Czempiel, E.-O. (1996). Kants Theorem. Oder: Warum sind die Demokratien (noch immer) nicht friedlich? Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, 3(1), 79–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Vattel, E. (1758). The Law of Nations, Book 3, Chapter 3, 49, Constitution Society. [online] available at http://www.constitution.org/vattel/vattel_03.htm

  • Deudney, D. (2004). Publius Before Kant: Federal-Republican Security and Democratic Peace. European Journal of International Relations, 10(3), 315–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deudney, D. (2007). Bounding Power: Republican Security Theory from the Polis to the Global Village. Oxford: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorussen, H., & Ward, H. (2010). Trade Networks and the Kantian Peace. Journal of Peace Research, 47(1), 29–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doyle, M. W. (2005). Three Pillars of the Liberal Peace. American Political Science Review, 99(3), 463–466.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fabbrini, S. (2005). Madison in Brussels: The EU and the US as Compound Democracies. European Political Science, 4, 188–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fabbrini, S. (2010). Compound Democracies: Why the United States and Europe Are Becoming Similar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geis, A., & Wagner, W. (2011). How Far Is It from Konigsberg to Kandahar? Democratic Peace and Democratic Violence in International Relations. Review of International Studies, 37(4), 1555–1577.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghervas, S. (2017). Balance of Power vs Perpetual Peace: Paradigms of European Order from the Utrecht to Vienna 1713–1815. The International History Review, 39(3), 404–425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gray, J. (2011, November 9). The Triumphalist. The New Republic. https://newrepublic.com/article/97257/fukuyama-modernization-theory-evolution

  • Halden, P. (2011a). Understanding the EU, the US and Their External Spheres of Rule: Republican Synergies, Destructive Feedbacks and Dependencies. Journal of Political Power, 4(3), 433–450.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halden, P. (2011b). Stability Without Statehood: Lessons from Europe’s History Before the Sovereign State. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Halden, P. (2011c). Republican Continuities in the Vienna Order and the German Confederation (1815–66). European Journal of International Relations, 19(2), 281–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammersley, R. (2012). The Historiography of Republicanism and Republican Exchanges. History of European Ideas, 38(3), 323–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hassner, P. (1997). Rousseau and the Theory and Practice of International Relations. In C. Orwin & N. Tarcov (Eds.), The Legacy of Rousseau (pp. 200–219). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hegre, H. (2014). Democracy and Armed Conflict. Journal of Peace Research, 51(2), 159–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hendrickson, D. (2017). Republic in Peril: American Empire and the Liberal Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobson, C. (2017). Democratic Peace: Progress and Crisis. Perspectives on Politics, 15(3), 697–710.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hurrell, A. (1990). Kant and the Kantian Paradigm in International Relations. Review of International Studies, 16, 183–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, R., & Sorensen, G. (2010). Introduction to International Relations (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jørgensen, K. E. (2010). International Relations Theory. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kalyvas, A., & Katznelson, I. (2008). Liberal Beginnings: Making a Republic for the Moderns. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kant, I. (1795 [2016]). Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay. M. C. Smith [Trans.], Gutenberg Project, Online. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50922/50922-h/50922-h.htm

  • Keenan, C. (2015). Paolo Sarpi, Caesar Baronius, and the Political Possibilities of Ecclesiastical History. Church History, 84(4), 746–767.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kenny, M. (2003). Global Civil Society: A Liberal Republican Argument. Review of International Studies, 29, 119–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klusmeyer, D. B. (2010). Hans Morgenthau and Republicanism. International Relations, 24(4), 389–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knutsen, T. L. (1994). Re-Reading Rousseau in the Post-Cold War World. Journal of Peace Research, 31(3), 247–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kustermans, J. (2010). Republican Security Theory Revisited. Review of International Studies, 37, 2269–2292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kustermans, J. (2011). The State as Citizen: State Personhood and Ideology. Journal of International Relations and Development, 14, 1–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laborde, C., & Maynor, J. (Eds.). (2008). Republicanism and Political Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laborde, C., & Ronzoni, M. (2016). What Is a Free State? Republican Internationalism and Globalization. Political Studies, 64(2), 276–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lavdas, A. K. (2010). Normative Evolution in Europe: Small States and Republican Peace. LSE Europe in Question Discussion Paper Series, 17, 1–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lerner, M. (2011). The Search for the Origins of Modern Democratic Republican Political Thought in Early Modern Switzerland. Modern Intellectual History, 8(3), 647–658.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitsky Steven and Ziblatt Daniel, (2018). How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future. London: Viking.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, K. (2010). Civilising International Politics: Republicanism and the World outside. Millennium Journal of International Studies, 38, 773–796.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luce Edward. (2017). The Retreat of Western Liberalism. London: Little, Brown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcussen, M., Risse, T., Engelmann-Martin, D., Knopf, H. J., & Roscher, K. (1999). Constructing Europe? The Evolution of French, British and German Nation State Identities. Journal of European Public Policy, 6(4), 614–633.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moyo Dambisa. (2018). Edge of Chaos. London: Little, Brown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muller, H., & Wolff, J. (2006). Democratic Peace: Many Data, Little Explanation? In A. Geis, L. Brock, & H. Mueller (Eds.), Democratic Wars: Looking at the Dark Side of Democratic Peace (pp. 41–73). Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Nicolaidis, K. (2004). We the Peoples of Europe…. Foreign Affairs, 83(6), 97–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Onuf, N. G. (1998). The Republican Legacy in International Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owen, J. M. (1994). How Liberalism Produces Democratic Peace. International Security, 19(2), 87–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paris, R. (2006). Bringing the Leviathan Back In: Classical Versus Contemporary Studies of the Liberal Peace. International Studies Review, 8(3), 425–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patapan, H. (2012). Democratic International Relations: Montesquieu and the Theoretical Foundations of Democratic Peace Theory. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 66(3), 313–329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pettit, P. (2001). Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pocock, J. G. A. (1975). The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, H. D. (1966). The Establishment of ‘Europe’ as a Political Expression. The Historical Journal, 9(2), 172–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simms, B. (2012). Towards a Mighty Union: How to Create a Democratic European Superpower. International Affairs, 88(1), 49–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, Q. (1998). Liberty before Liberalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sorensen, G. (1992). Kant and Processes of Democratization. Journal of Peace Research, 29(4), 397–414.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snyder Timothy, D. (2017). On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century , London: Bodley Head.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tjalve, V. (2008). Realist Strategies of Republican Peace: Niebuhr, Morgenthau, and the Politics of Patriotic Dissent. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Trechsel, A. H. (2005). How to Federalize the European Union…and Why Bother. Journal of European Public Policy, 12(3), 401–418.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tully, J. (2008). Modern Constitutional Democracy and Imperialism. Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 46(3), 461–493.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Gelderen, Martin and Skinner, Quentin eds., Republicanism: The Values of Republicanism in Early Modern Europe: A Shared European Heritage, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

    Google Scholar 

  • Viroli, M. (2002). Republicanism. New York: Henry Holt & Company Inc.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Baltic Defence College, Tartu, Estonia

    Kevin Blachford

  2. Estonian School of Diplomacy, Tallinn, Estonia

    Kevin Blachford

Authors
  1. Kevin Blachford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kevin Blachford .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Knud Erik Jørgensen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Blachford, K. (2021). Republicanism and Liberal International Theory. In: Jørgensen, K.E. (eds) The Liberal International Theory Tradition in Europe. Trends in European IR Theory. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52643-6_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation