A republic was any form of government in which sovereignty resided in the people, not in a separate ruling class or a king, and where the people were citizens and not merely subjects.



句中前半句定语从句“in which sovereignty resided in the people”的先行词是form还是government，假如还原成单独的句子是哪种？有两个介词in？

A republic was any form of government in which sovereignty resided in the people, not in a separate ruling class or a king, and where the people were citizens and not merely subjects.

1. form of government：政体（政治体制），不要分隔开来。所以，which 指 form of government。

2. 本句，含有两个定语从句： in which...和 where...，它们是并列的，由 and 连接，用途一样，都是修饰 form of government 的。

3. 在第一个定语从句中，resided in （存在于；是）， not in 是 not resided in 的省略，意思是“没有于；不是”。

至此，句子结构和意思，应该没问题了。



这是给 republic 下概念。我把句子直译出来：

【直译】共和国是一种政体，在此政体下（in which），主权是人民，而不是单独的统治阶级或国王；在此政体下（where），人民是公民而不止是臣民。