History of Republic 2

The concept of the "republic" itself was not a meaningful concept in the classical world There are number of states of the classical era that are today by convention called republics. These include the city states of ancient Greece such as Athens and Sparta and the Roman Republic. The structure and governance of these states was very different from that of any modern republic. There is a debate about whether the classical, medieval, and modern republics form a historic continuum. JGA Pocock has played a central role, arguing that there is a distinct republican tradition that stretches from the classical world to the present. Other scholars disagree.[16] Paul Rahe, for instance, argues that the classical republics had a form of government with few links to those in any modern country