Republicanism

Etymology

From Latin res publica, “the public thing” or “public affair” — the Roman name for the commonwealth as against private interest. The -ism took modern shape around the revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, defining government based on popular sovereignty and representation rather than hereditary rule. (In everyday U.S. speech it can also refer to a specific political party, a separate sense.)

noun · /rih-PUB-lih-kuh-niz-um/
A political tradition favoring government as a public matter conducted through elected representatives, without a monarch, and valuing civic virtue.
What it names
An older strand of political thought about liberty as freedom from domination — sustained by active citizens and the rule of law, not just by elections.
Example
The essay traced the country’s republicanism to Roman ideas of citizenship and the common good.
Related idea
Monarchism vests sovereignty in a hereditary ruler; republicanism holds that legitimate authority rises from the public and its representatives instead.