Radical factorization in commutative rings, monoids and multiplicative lattices

In this paper we study the concept of radical factorization in the context of abstract ideal theory in order to obtain a unified approach to the theory of factorization into radical ideals and elements in the literature of commutative rings, monoids and ideal systems. Using this approach we derive new characterizations of classes of rings whose ideals are a product of radical ideals, and we obtain also similar characterizations for classes of ideal systems in monoids and star ideals in integral domains.