Do members of the Republican Party espouse Republicanism?
Asked by
DaphneT (
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December 30th, 2011
I’m trying to improve my understanding of the ideology of the Republican Party. The Media constantly refers to the Republican Party as conservative, but are they using the correct terms? Do members of the Republican Party really espouse Conservatism or would Republicanism be more accurate. These terms are also being used in noun form, would the general does this mean not paid as a politician or member of politician’s staff? population be better served if the terms were used as adjectives and adverbs?
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3 Answers
The current Republican Party seems populated by both “Conservatives” and “Reactionaries”. Conservatives want to keep things as they are, Reactionaries want to return to a previous state of how things used to be.
I think you are correct, Conservatism is not broad enough.
As a term of political science, “republicanism” means being in favor of the republican form of government. A republic is a state in which the position of head of state is not heredity. It may or may not be an elected position. Republics are typically governed by representative bodies (which again may or may not be elected), but this is not essential to the definition.
The United States is a democratic republic (a republic in which the head of state is elected by the people). As such, both the Democrats and the Republicans espouse republicanism in this technical sense. Moreover, using the term “republicanism” in any other sense would be confusing. Both of the major parties are very old and have gone through multiple changes. There is nothing that the either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party has consistently stood for except for the advancement of its own hegemony.
Since 1964 and Goldwater, the Republicans have described themselves as “Conservative” and more and more the protectors and advocates of “conservative values.” These are values and ideologies of how things supposedly were in the past. The Republicans continually state that a “true Republican” is one who espouses conservative values.
(The Republicans themselves criticize other Republicans that are not conservative enough as “Republican In Name Only” (RINO).
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