Term Paper on "Aristotle Cicero and Mixed Constitutions"

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Cicero Aristotle Constitution

Both Aristotle and Cicero argue the merits of mixed constitutions, a balance between monarchy, aristocracy and polity. The concept is widely attributed to the more modern resources used by the founding fathers but can be drawn from more historical sources. The first three articles set up the threefold separation of powers, said to have been modeled on Montesquieu's study, which on this point was incorrect, of the British government. (Columbia Electronic encyclopedia 6th ed) it seems that the story is much older and history dictates the importance of such separation of power.

Aristotle demonstrates his belief in the ideal of a three-tiered governmental system consisting of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government in several of his works but most notably in this passage from Poltis:

Aristotle agrees, "the better the constitution is mixed, the more permanent it is" for him the well-ordered constitution results from the proper ordering of three factors: the deliberative body, the magistracies, and the judiciary. (Lloyd 1998)

His meaning is clear, according to Lloyd in that the best governments contain balances of power that leaves no one of the three divisions in a state of greater power than the others, to reduce the possibility of either internal corruption and coercion or overthrow by one of the three powers, resulting in despotism.

Cicero agrees, by stating rather eloquently as claimed by Lloyd in his work on the origins of the balance of power within the U.S. Constitution. Cicero (Rep. 1.69) also attests to the stability of a mixed constitution... "For the primary forms already mentioned degenerate easily into the corresponding perverted forms, the king being replaced by a despot, the aristocracy by an oligarchical faction, and the people by a mob and anarchy; but whereas these forms are frequently changed into new ones, this does not usually happen in the case of the mixed and evenly balanced constitution, except through great faults in the governing class." Cicero too declares the mixed constitution the best form of government (Rep. 2.41), "the most splendid conceivable" (Rep. 2.42: quo nihil possit esse praeclarius). He concludes, "a form of government which is an equal mixture of the three good forms is superior to any of them by itself " (Rep. 2.66: sed id praestare singulis, quod e tribus primis esset modice temperatum). (Lloyd)

There are many examples of these ideals reflected in the Constitution of the United States. As the first three articles attest the division of power is constitutional and the wording of several passages of the work also express the ideals of not only the separations but also the checks of each subset, one to the other.

Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two-thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that House it shall become a law. Article I Section VI U.S. Constitution

In this section of article one is an example of the way in which the executive body has the right to approve or disapprove of the work of the legislative body, not fully removing power because the congress can then go on to override the veto of the president, with a higher vote in both houses. Therefore the… READ MORE

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