SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Why did republicanism enjoy a revival in interest in the sixties and seventies and a “rediscovery” in the history of Western political thought? Over the twentieth century, many new states created through processes of decolonization conceptualized themselves as independent sovereign republics. Yet the main thrust of the study of republicanism has focused on the development of the classical paradigm centered on virtue, citizenship, and self-government in Western political thought that culminated in American and French republican foundings. This historical excavation of the republican paradigm elides postcolonial republican foundings. This article contends there is a reclaiming of the republican tradition and practice as Western that perpetuates the division between the West and non-West. This article examines the impact of Machiavellian virtue/fortune on Arendt and Pocock’s republican historiography and demonstrates that their understandings contribute to a dualistic historiography of Western and postcolonial republics and contends that India’s republican founding transformed Western republican conceptions.