Cleisthenes’ Athens, pre-Caesar Rome, Carthage, as well as a host of less-famous civilizations have followed a republican model. In a republic, power rests with selected individuals who represent the citizenry (usually some limited sector of the citizenry) and rule in accordance with some mutually agreed-upon law. A generalized "republic" might refer to governments such as Iceland's "Althing" - a medieval parliament, or to the Tlaxcala Nahua state - a pre-Colombian free state in Mexico that had a representative assembly, including (shockingly, for Classical Greek minds) commoners' representation. But the word "republic" draws most clearly to mind the Mediterranean, and especially the Roman Republic (509 BC-27 BC), with its complex system of assemblies and magistrates, all drawing upon the idea of a "civic" sector - a representative sample of particular populations, as well as some degree of checks against the rise of autocracy. Of course, the latter didn't work out for Rome.

These notions of civic pride and civil society re-emerged during the Renaissance to influence modern European political theory. Here, as Europe incorporated ideas from antiquity and engaged with the Muslim world, new alternatives to the divine right of kings emerged. City-states especially in Italy embraced republican ideas - and writers such as the political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli provided an updated blueprint. But in so doing, the notions of civic virtue and the institutions of the Classical Republic had changed, moving forward towards something new.