Talk:People's Republic
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- It has typically been used by political members of the political right wing to castigate towns for policies they deem beyond the pale or "un-American", by casting their ideological opponents as communists.
I lived in Boston for a long time, surrounded almost exclusively by liberals and socialists. It was from them I heard the term "People's Republic of Cambridge", in a light-hearted jocular way. They seemed to think it was normal usage.
I believe it refers to substantial changes (made within the democratic system) to conform the economic modalities of the community to the socialist ideal. Such measures as rent control come to mind.
I don't think the usage is primarily a dig by conservatives. I listened to 3 or 4 months of Sean Hannity on the radio and can't remember hearing him use the term. -- Uncle Ed (talk) 18:43, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC)
I think this is kind of inaccurate, though not entirely. Just from having studied Maoism, Mao is pretty specific in saying that China is a people's republic because the People -- workers, students, peasants, cadres, revolutionary classes in general -- enjoy the full benefits of democracy (borrowed from America's 1st amendment) whereas reactionary classes are denied these basic freedoms. I think he talks about it in "On Handling Contradictions Among the People," and Starr does a good job of summarizing it in his book "The Political Thought of Mao". User:arobotar
- Irrelevant. China isn't under Mao anymore and can hardly be called Maoist. 67.39.180.44 22:26, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] In Chinese
In Chinese, the words for "people's republic" (renmin gongheguo 人民共和国) and "republic" (minguo 民国) are practically synonyms. In fact if you abbreviate "people's republic" in Chinese (a la Chinese language conventions), it becomes "republic" (民国). To the Chinese speaker, renmin gongheguo (people's republic) is just a wordier term for minguo (republic). 67.39.180.44 22:31, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
- Not just in Chinese... Republic itself is derived from res publica. -- Миборовский 22:57, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
