ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out the proposed use of republican theory to provide a theoretical framework to analyse the effect of the Human Rights Act on democracy in the British Constitution. The defining characteristic of republicanism is that of freedom as defined in terms of 'non-domination', in contrast to the liberal approach of defining freedom in terms of non-interference. In a republican constitution, the state is not something that happens to its people, it is something constituted by its people. There are two different aspects of an individual's relationship with the state, which can be subject to a republican analysis: the individual as the subject of state power, and the individual as a citizen with a share of power of the state. Pettit's formulation of how choice may suffer interference has developed over various accounts whilst developing his analysis, and applying it in different contexts.
