What is the oldest Republic in the world?

@Rockstar0224 Sorry. I couldn’t resist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_marino

I will look some more. The Basilica is beautiful. That looks like a beautiful place.

@Adirondackwannabe Thanks

Everything I’m finding says San Marino.

@Adirondackwannabe Same here.

Sweet, thanks for teaching me about San Marino… I had no idea!

Me neither. I wonder what other small European countries there are. The ones I know of are Lichtenstein, Andorra, The Vatican and Malta.

You are looking for oldest still in existence? The oldest to run a state is the Roman Republic, which died under Julius Caesar.

There were republics in what is now India in 600BC but they don’t exist today.

@LostInParadise Luxembourg is a small European country as well.

@zenvelo Why would you say Rome rather than, say, Athens?

@LostInParadise Don’t forget about Genovia!

Short answer: As continuously existing modern-ish republics, with elements of direct democracy, many Swiss cantons are arguably a few hundred years older than San Marino.

Long Answer: It would depend how you define republic, for one. I wouldn’t count Athens because it was quite literally not a republic, and Plato conceptualized his republic of philosopher-king rulers as a reaction to Athens. Being based on the notional Roman republic is another extreme, leaving you with notionally few republics today. The modern definition seems to have settled on something including but not entirely ruled by direct democracy, and lacking de jure hereditary rule – which is fine, but then you must consider Great Britain is not a republic, while Iran is.

I think San Marino’s republican government could only have said to have fully come into existence in the 16th century or so.

Italian city-states and maybe some chartered German city-states are also older, but that uses a more broad definition of republic that maybe isn’t quite what people mean these days. They tended to be more authoritarian, ruled by privileged elites, even if those elites were sometimes burgers (cf. bourgeois, the “free” urban dwelling “middle class”) rather than aristocracy.

@rojo, And Grand Fenwick

@Zaku Athens wasn’t a Republic, it was a democracy.

@LostInParadise Grand Fenwick the only Duchy in the Nuclear Club.