Republican writers may have provided arguments that negative freedom is best promoted through certain political institutions, rather than arguments for a distinct republican concept of freedom.
(Political philosophy; contrasted implicitly with positive conceptions of freedom)
A conception of freedom that concentrates on the external sphere in which individuals interact, understood as a domain of sovereign action within which individuals may pursue their own projects, limited only by an obligation to respect the equivalent domains of others.
It remains to be seen, however, whether the republican concept of freedom is ultimately distinguishable from the negative concept, or whether republican writers on freedom have not simply provided good arguments to the effect that negative freedom is best promoted, on balance and over time, through certain kinds of political institutions rather than others. While there is no necessary connection between negative liberty and democratic government, there may nevertheless be a strong empirical corr