Two conceptions of government and politics dominate modern political thought. The first of these, the theory of republican, representative democracy, is often associated with the American revolution and its efforts to improve upon the British parliamentary model by establishing a commercial republic. This involved reconciling the goal of active civic participation associated with ancient Greek and Roman republicanism with the greater size, political lethargy, selfishness and luxury of modern commercial societies. Popular participation was now rendered sufficiently sporadic and indirect, and no longer inclusive of universal military service, such that public service was no onerous burden for the majority. This was intended in part to inhibit the tumultuousness to which republics were prone. Consequently the health of the body politic was no longer expected to depend primarily upon the robustness of public virtue. Individuals were instead assumed to be concerned predominantly with their occupations and the duties of private life. A relaxation of civic vigilance in commercial republics was thought possible partially because the sphere of executive government was to be reduced considerably while that of civil society was expanded correspondingly, and the mutual satisfaction of economic interests through freedom of commerce assigned some responsibility for providing social stability. Associated with this notion of democracy, therefore, is the theory of what is usually termed ‘negative liberty’, where liberty is understood principally as the restraint of state power in order to guarantee individual freedom from political persecution, corruption and governmental economic interference.