RESPUBLICA is an international research project based at the University of Navarra's Institute for Culture & Society that investigates the problem of building a shared civil order under conditions of social, cultural, and institutional complexity. We explore the hypothesis that a polycentric, federated civil order granting substantial governmental prerogatives to local territorial associations as well as non-territorial associations, and not investing total sovereign power in any specific institution, could manage problems of coordination and contestation in a complex society in ways that are more consonant with individual and associational freedom than a sovereign State (or sovereign city-State) as it has been construed by modern philosophers like Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant. 

We aim to articulate and explore the viability of a republic (res publica) that is sufficiently informed by a substantial vision of human flourishing to permit citizens to interact peacefully and productively, yet sufficiently flexible and open-textured in its demands to permit citizens to cultivate diverse forms of associational identity and belonging. The project critically interrogates and develops the following two constructive hypotheses, through a series of seminars and publications culminating in a conference and edited volume on social complexity and governance.

1. The project of constructing a shared civil order must successfully integrate a wide range of diverse social projects pursued by diverse associations, some territorial and other non-territorial, while simultaneously affording such diverse projects sufficient autonomy to coherently pursue their distinctive purposes, and contribute to the good of the wider civil order in their own distinctive manner. 
2. The type of civil order that may have a reasonable chance of respecting the exigencies of local normative orders, while at the same time reconciling them with an acceptable overarching normative order would be one that is composed of a plurality of publics, both territorial and nonterritorial, woven together through a federated polity, granting significant autonomy to (a) local political associations (e.g. cantons, municipalities), and (b) local civil associations of a nonterritorial character (e.g. philanthropic associations, universities, business associations).

Our core research team is based in Spain, Germany, and Ireland, but we also have frequent seminar participants from the UK and USA. Below, you can find the names and affiliations of our core research team:

1. David Thunder, Principal Investigator - Univ. of Navarra, Institute for Culture & Society (Political Philosophy)
2. Juan Pablo Dominguez - University of Navarra, Institute for Culture & Society (History)
3. Julia Urabayen - University of Navarra, Department of Philosophy
4. Pilar Zambrano - University of Navarra, Faculty of Law
5. Martin Rode - University of Navarra, School of Economics
6. Julian Mueller - University of Hamburg, Department of Philosophy
7. Maria Cahill - University College Cork, School of Law