Republican Differences

The contemporary revival of republicanism is both the critique of over-reliance on individual rights in contemporary political thought, and a reconstruction of the Western intellectual tradition of political thought. The contemporary republicanism find that Machiavelli is the key figure of the republicanism from classical to modern ievelopment, by studying civic humanism thought of the 16th century city of the Republic of Italy. Historians of republicanism are able to adhere to the idea on the continuity of the classical republicanism by rediscovering of Machiavelli’s political thought. But there are two modes of the understanding of Machiavelli respectively in the contemporary:one is the civic humanism, namely, the new doctrine of Athens; one is the civic republican, namely, the new doctrine of Rome. These two different ideas of Machiavelli’s republican thought lead to different contemporary republican discourse caused by "virtue" and "law" as the core of there two disputes, the former emphasizing civic virtue Fulfillment, civic life and the importance of education in shaping the role of virtue; the latter advocated the adoption of the constitutional system and the law to protect political freedoms, so that virtue has the less important role.Machiavelli’s republican thought has many multiple-oriented dimensions; this paper reviews the Machiavelli’s republican thought, to explain the new Athens doctrine and New Roman doctrine of Machiavelli’s view of freedom, virtue and the law, thereby to display how the contemporary republicanism constructed by analyzing the idea of Machiavelli’s republican thought. With this summary and comparison, we would understand the contemporary republicanism better.