Abstract

In the first part of the article, the differences between Pocock's interpretation of modern republicanism and Skinner's are investigated. Two issues are at stake: the continuity between aristotelianism and republicanism and the relation between republicanism and liberalism. The author points out, also, that in the last two decades republican ideas have been discussed and reinterpreted by communitarian philosophers, such as C. Taylor and M. Sandel, and legal thinkers, such as F. Michelman and C. Sunstein. In the second part of the article, the author, taking into account some historical cases, emphasizes the importance of identifying the different families of theories and the conceptual discontinuities existing in the long republican tradition.