In his book Monarchy to Republic, Professor George Winterton has a somewhat attenuated discussion on the shift in the meaning of the word 1.
This is demonstrated by the categorisation of the United States of America and Iraq as republics, and the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia as monarchies, although one member of each class has much more in common with a member of the other class, on all significant criteria of classification, than the other member of the same class.Īlthough a word of many connotations, the term “republic” had a much more useful meaning for classification purposes until relatively recent times. With that meaning it is not a particularly useful term of classification, and indicates nothing important about the form of government in any particular state to which it is applied. In that debate, and in general current usage, the term is taken to mean simply the absence of an hereditary monarchy. The revival of debate about Australia becoming a republic provides a further opportunity to examine the meaning of that word.
