It is a system where the people can exercise sovereignty, through the governments they elect, for a certain time and where they exercise a certain position. The word republic comes from the Latin "res" which means "public thing", or that belongs to the people, that is to say, that power resides in the people, which is temporarily delegated to their representatives. It has a great fundamental difference compared to monarchical governments where the sovereign has power for life and many times hereditary.
One of the important characteristics that distinguishes a republican government is that they are governed by a set of fundamental laws, which establish the creation of society, the form of government and the rights of citizens, everything is established in a constitution.
Other characteristics of the republic are:
- All citizens have rights to the equality of the law.
- The rulers must be responsible to the people who elected them, for their actions during this government.
- Those acts should not be secret but made known to the people in order to be controlled.
Some of the republican governments are the following:
The fundamental characteristic of this system is the division of powers, which are constitutionally established three, being divided in terms of the specific functions that they develop:
- An administrative body, represented by the executive branch.
- A lawmaker, called the legislative branch.
- A body in charge of applying the laws in the specific cases submitted for its assessment, which is called the judicial power.
The best definition of republican government by the Argentine constitutionalist Aristóbulo del Valle. According to him, a Republic is a people organized on the basis of the equality of all people, where the government is a simple agent of the people, who is elected by the people of time and responsible to its people and its administration.
