Abstract
Republicanism constitutes an important and venerable tradition in Western political thought, which includes such important thinkers as Machiavelli, Harrington, Sydney, Montesquieu and the Founding Fathers of the United States. Nevertheless, this tradition was for a long time somewhat neglected by mainstream political theory.
Recently, however, we are witnessing a renewed wave of scholarly interest in republican ideas. In the field of political theory, it led to the development of so called neo-republicanism-normative political theo- ry inspired by the ideas of classical (in particular Roman) republicanism.
Its most important representative is Philip Pettit, whose seminal work Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government, appeared in 1997. The present monothematic issue of Acta Politologica presents another contribu- tion to this lively and interesting inter-disciplinary debate.
The issue opens with Tomáš Halamka's interview with Philip Pettit. The interview focusses on the principal ideas of his republican political theory and on the differences between neo-republicanism and neo- liberalism.
To illustrate the practical relevance of his ideas, Professor Pettit also refers to various current political developments, such as the independence referenda in the UK and in Catalonia, the Trump presidency, and the nefarious and potentially oppressive power of the globalised markets and social media. The opening interview is followed by four historically oriented papers, which in vari- ous ways either react directly to Pettit's work or otherwise engage in the current scholarly debates about republicanism.