Republic

(re-püb'lik.) [FromL. res public a.) (Pol.) Literally, a form of state government in which the exercise of the sovereign power is vested in the people at large. A republic may be either an aristocracy, like what the former cities of Venice and Genoa were, with the supreme authority vested in a few privileged individuals; -or a democracy, in which latter case it is vested in rulers by and from the whole pop., or in represontatives selected by it: the United States is an instance in point.- R. of Letters. (Lit.) The literary world: the collective body of learned men and authors. [s. 763]