Republican freedom and subjective legitimacy of power

Abstract

This article examines the concept of republican political freedom in connection with three aspects of the relationship between subject and State: the subject as distinct from, or opposed to, the State; the subject as established by its constitutional definition; and the subject as historical praxis of identification and deidentification with its legal, recognised form. For this, firstly, I discuss the republican concept of freedom. This is followed by a reflection on the relation-ship between the individual and the Modern State in terms of an analysis of the subjective legitimacy of power based on consent. Finally, I set out to examine republican political freedom from a historicist perspective, venturing some re-flections on the relationship between the republican State as promoter of freedom and historical liberating practices.