Uma Análise Comparativa entre as Conceções Republicanas de John Adams e de Thomas Paine Durante Revolução Americana de 1776 | A Comparative Analysis Between the Republican Conceptions of John Adams and Thomas Paine During the American Revolution of 1776

Abstract

This article presents a comparative analysis of the republican conception of Thomas Paine (1737-1809), exposed in Common Sense in 1776, with that of John Adams (1735-1826), exposed in Thoughts on Government published in the same year. The objective intended to achieve is to understand the political-philosophical difference between Adams and Paine that made them diverge in their republican constructions with Adams defending a bicameral republican system that protected the republic of democratic tyranny, and Paine defending a more egalitarian and democratic unicameral republican system that better represented the popular will in order to prevent elites from concentrating political power in themselves and oppressing the natural rights of others citizens. The conclusions proposed by this study are that Adam’s republicanism combined democratic elements with aristocratic elements because it was based on the protection of liberty, while Paine’s republicanism was closer to democracy because it was based on the protection of equality. The relevance of this comparative analysis is that it elucidates the debate surrounding the construction of the American republic in the embryonic phase of 1776, in which republicanism could be combined at different levels of approximation with forms of government as distinct as aristocracy and democracy.