Abstract

This paper shows how the republican model of Cicero has been transmitted fragmentarily, through the Italian civic humanist tradition (Maquiavelo), the English republican humanism of XVI, XVII and XVIII centuries, and the republicanism of the American patriots, ("neo-republicanism"). The proposals of Pettit and Brugger are analyzed, and a great variety of positions that some consider "republican" are summarily reckoned. Finally, it is maintained that the classic republican model is present in a very fragmented way in contemporary political theories, for these theories are incapable to accept some strong anthropological, ethical and metaphysical theses. Cicero's model of republicanism appears to us like in a large scale copy or replica, precisely in the political and legal reality of the contemporary world, in its practices and institutions, and in the political function of its theoretical reflections