The fortunes of the Commonwealth: vocabulary and society

• Autor(a) principal: Santos Junior, Jaime Fernando dos
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Clio (Recife. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufpe.br/revistas/index.php/revistaclio/article/view/237910
• topic: Commonwealth; Republicanism; English Revolution; Political vocabulary; Commonwealth; Republicanismo; Revolução inglesa; Vocabulário político

During the Early Modern, the understanding of the word commonwealth has changed profoundly in England. Formerly linked to the language of the common good and virtuous forms of government, without distinguishing a specific constitution; after the regicide began to indicate a political establishment without King and without the function of the monarchy. Commonwealth ceased to be just an ethical ideal to be a reality, with an obligatorily republican administrative structure. However, regardless of the interpretation, the vocabulary has been the subject of dispute between different groups and individuals, describing a social organization but also prescribing behaviors and conducts. What I suggest in this text, based on an analysis focused on the words, is that more than a simple semantic dispute, the use of a term was the defense of different political projects and society.