THE GREAT REPUBLIC.

The article sheds light on the model of the Great Republic. The article adds that it was conceived in Europe, east of the Elbe. The article deliberately refrains from using the term "Eastern Europe" for the tradition of the Great Republic is shared by certain Central-European societies and only some East-European ones. Further, there is no one single model of the Great Republic but several ones. However, all have certain basic features in common, indeed sufficient to warrant our calling them models of the Great Republic. In addition, all of them have been formulated by thinkers who had been brought up east of the Elbe, or carried and motivated by political movements belonging to the same region. The model of the Great Republic though, has never made an appearance in the modern history of Great Britain; the American model has always been deeply rooted in its own tradition (the only democratic tradition one can mention); French postwar social movements, especially those of May 1968, have borne very little resemblance to the Great Republic.