Walking on the Far Left

  The Storming of the Bastille- French Revolution painting by Jean-Baptiste Lallemand (1789). Something that never ceases to amaze me is how a supposedly people centric and class conscious set of communitarian and socialist economic principles can somehow ironically be responsible for the development of some of the most inegalitarian societies that have existed globally. This can be reflected through observing the case of France at the time of the French Revolution during the mid to late 18th century (and even still, to some degree, in more recent times). This was, arguably, the point in time by which the greatest reconstruction and reformation of the social and political dimension of Europe took place, its ever present and significant imprint continuing to be felt throughout the centuries that followed.    While Mao presented the need for the “true” people, as in the workers and peasants, to rebuild society, this was achieved through undemocratic and authoritarian means ...

What appears striking is the sheer breadth and diversity of forms in which republicanism can be observed, spanning a range of ideological perspectives, positions along the political spectrum, and uses to fulfil a variety of objectives that satisfy the needs of many differing demographics. Yet, despite this, in today's political discourse, republicanism appears to be used mainly to refer to either the US government's comparatively conservative, economically libertarian, and capitalist values, or, for many European nations, the abolition of the monarchy and the transition to a presidential republic. It is also surprising that there remains minimal implementation of many typical republican values, and their relative merits and failures in resolving the social and economic issues posed by existing political systems. This can be observed when examining the primary interests and means by which several UK MPs who identified themselves as republicans defined their own version of republ...