Dr. Patrick Bass, professor of history, will give a lecture on “The Historical Background to the Decline and Fall of Republics” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, in Weikert Auditorium in Buhler Rohlfs Hall.

Dr. Patrick Bass, professor of history at Morningside College, will give a lecture on “The Historical Background to the Decline and Fall of Republics” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, in Weikert Auditorium in Buhler Rohlfs Hall, 1701 Morningside Ave.

The lecture is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Col. Bud Day Center for Civic Engagement in collaboration with the Morningside College History Department.

The lecture will discuss the republican form of government, where people hold power through their elected representatives. Bass said republics are now the norm across the globe, though some countries are republics only in form and others only in function.

“Prior to the last 250 years, almost all states rejected both the republican form and the republican function, due to its inherent instability and practical implications for protections of individual liberty,” he said. “By discussing the varieties of ways that republics have declined and fell over the last two millennia, we can better understand current governmental trends globally.”

Bass has taught at Morningside since 1992. He teaches European and American history and studies U.S. foreign relations. He has a doctorate from Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, Calif.

Morningside College opened the Col. Bud Day Center for Civic Engagement in 2015. Dr. Valerie Hennings, assistant professor of political science, serves as director. The center focuses on activities related to civic awareness and citizenship on campus and in the Sioux City area. The center is affiliated with the Morningside College Department of Political Science and Sociology.