A capitalist republic is a socialist propaganda term describing a concept of government that is antithetical to socialist thought. They hold that while a socialist republic is a "dictatorship of the proletariat", a capitalist republic is freedom of the common man to succeed on his own. In On New Democracy, Mao Zedong distinguished his vision of a New Democratic Republic from a capitalist republic, which he characterized as an "old European-American form" of government that was "out of date".
A capitalist republic was the goal of Sean Murray in the Irish Republicanism movement in the 1930s. At a meeting in Rathmines, Murray advocated a capitalist republic for Ireland, taking what commentators have described as a "stages" approach in moving from national freedom towards a socialist state. Murray advocated first the achievement of national freedom, to form a capitalist republic, followed by a transition from a capitalist republic to a socialist republic.
Other Republicans, such as Gilmore and O'Donnell, sought the same goal by reversing the stages, arguing that the uprooting of capitalism through struggle will consequently lead to national independence. Mike Milotte has noted that although Murray advocated a capitalist republic, "by avoiding the prefix its precise class nature was obscured".