Classic Definition of Republic
Republic is formed from two Latin words res (thing) and publica (public); it literally means 'the public thing(s)'. In the Latin context, it means 'affairs affecting the state', 'the state' itself, or 'the constitution' of the state".(a) The Latin word republic is similiar in meaning to the Greek word politea. Both words constitute the meaning of state; the state being one that is made up of different classes of people and all involved in the governing of the polity. Simply stated: a republic is a "mixed government".A republic, in the classical form, is a form of government that has mixed the best elements of the classes together. There is the Spartan model which is tri-political government of kings, gerousia (aristocracy) and Ephors (democratic body). There is the Roman model that has a civilian head, and an aristocratic body which is the Senate. It is marked by a bicameral legislative body and by a written constitution that marks out the duties and responsiblities of the different bodies. It includes all citizens in government and excludes none. It provides checks and balances on all so that all live in harmony. This is not to be confused as a seperation of powers; a republic is a co-operation of classes without anyone of them being dominant. A Republic is an harmony of the state under the rule of law.
Of the ancient republics, there is Crete, Sparta, Carthage and Rome.
In modern times, some argue that Cromwell's Commonwealth of England was a republic. As well, the founding fathers modelled the United States on classical principles. (see De Republica Anglorum; the Manner of Government or Policie of the Realme of England, {1583}) (aa) Today, there are no governments based on the classical republican form.
The Greek word for State is "Poleos". It denotes "society" in general. Aristotle writes "A collection of persons all alike does not constitute a state". (d) This Greek word, "Politeia" is then named for every government that includes all classes of people as citizens and a written law, constitution that defines and delegates rights and responsibilities of those classes. A republic is one that does not have a dominant factor.
"Politea" is a Greek word used by Aristotle in his book, Politics, to describe a republican form of government.
Aristotle records that "some people assert that the best constitution must be a combination of all the forms of constitution, therefore praise the constitution of Sparta." (2) He further remonstrates that the better the constitution is mixed, the more permanent it is. (3) The definition he gives for this kind of government is a "politean"; the form intermediate between them which is termed a republic, (mesi de touton in kalousi politeian) for the government is constituted from the class that bears arms. (4) Again, Aristotle states that constitutional government is, to put it simply, a mixture of oligarchy and democracy. (5)
Polybius (as also Plato and Aristotle) distinguishes three types of governments: "kingship, aristocracy, democracy". Furthermore, like Aristotle, he goes on to state that the best constitution is that "which partakes of all these three elements". (6) "The first to construct a constitution--that of Sparta--on this principle", Lycurgus, with some inspiration from his fellow Doric brothers in Crete (7) created a government that combined an hereditary kingship with body of advisors from the aristocracy and another that represented the rest of the people (the democracy), all being checks and balances on each other.
Polybius concludes saying: "The result of this combination has been that the Lacedaemonians retained their freedom for the longest period of any people." (8) and "...for securing unity among the citizens, for safeguarding the Laconian territory and preserving the liberty of Sparta inviolate, the legislation and provisions of Lycurgus were so excellent that I am forced to regard his wisdom as something superhuman." (9)
Megillus the Spartan: Why sir, when I consisder our Lacedaemonian constitution, I really cannot tell you offhand which would be the proper name for it. It actually seems to have its resemblances to an autocracy--in fact, the power of our ephors is astonishingly autocratic--and yet at times I think it looks like the most democratic of all societies. Again, it would be sheer paradox to deny that it is an aristocracy, while yet again a feature of it is a life monarchy, asserted by all mankind, as well as ourselves, to be the very oldest of such insititutions.
Clinias the Cretan: I find myself in the same perplexity as you, Megillus. I am quite at a loss to identify our Cnossian constitution confidently with any of them.
The Athenian (Plato): That, my friends, is because you enjoy real constitutions, whereas the types we have specified are not constitutions, but settlements enslaved to the domination of some component section, each taking its designation from the dominant factor. (9a)
Sparta is the site where in the first time in Greek political life and in Western culture that a body of councillors took initiative and responsiblity for presenting proposals and resolutions to an assembly. This occured in the eighth or seventh century B.C. (9b)
Duties and responsiblities in the Spartan Republic are outlined in short verses called Rhetra (the constitution). These Rhetra are attributed to Lycurgus, the lawgiver of the Lacedaemonians. The Spartan society consisted of two kings from two different royal families called the Agiads and the Eurypontids. There also existed from former times a royal council called the Gerousia. Members of the Gerousia were appointed for life from the head of the aristocratic families. The council was made of 28 aristocratic members with two kings sitting in making a total of thirty. Upon this basis did Lycurgus add the Rhetra circa 776 B.C. At some time, an oligarchic body with members elected from the citizen body for one year was introduced called the Ephors. It was the Ephors who presided over an assembly of all the Spartan citizens called Spartiates which could only shout approval or disapproval of measures presented by the two bodies, the Gerousia and the Ephors. The whole legislative process required two legislative bodies and the whole body of citizens to affirm it.
The American constitution was influenced by Cicero. Cicero also terms the republic as a "mixed form of constitution". (1) Michael Grant explicates the significance of Cicero: "This 'mixed' constitution, previously admired by the historian Polybius (to whom Cicero's debts were extensive), reappeared again and again in early discussions of the constitution of the United States of America, figuring prominently, for example, in John Adams Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States (1787). (10) Cicero was familiar with Dicaearchus of Messana who wrote a treatise on the mixed constitution of Sparta, the Tripoliticus. (11) Dicaerchus "was greatly admired by Cicero".
Cicero provides the knowledge train of this history of tri-political government:
This type of discussion, which I am undertaking, derives most of its material from that other philosophical school, of which Plato, was the leader. The men who came after him, Aristotle and Heraclides of Pontus, another follower of Plato, threw light on the whole topic of national constitutions through the inquiries they conducted. Moreover, as you know, Theophrastus, Aristotle's disciple specialized in this type of investigation; and another of Aristotle's pupils, Dicaearchus, was active in the same field of study."(12)
The modality of mixed government is explained by Cicero: "When however, instead, a group of men seize the state by exploiting their wealth or noble birth or some other resource, that is a political upheaveal, though they call themselves conservatives. If, on the other hand, the people gain the supremacy, and the whole government is conducted according to their wishes, a state of affairs has arisen which is hailed as libery, but is, in fact, chaos. But when there is a situation of mutual fear, with one person or on class fearing another, then because nobody has sufficient confidence in his won strength a kind of bargain is struck between the ordinary people and the men who are powerful. The result, in that case, is the mixed constitution which Scipio recommends. (It is footnoted as monarchy, oligarchy and democracy.) Which means that weakness, not nature or good intention, is the mother of justice. (12a)
The Roman Republic was formed basically on a tri-partite form. There were two consuls who were equal in authority who were elected for a year, the Roman Senate which was a broad based oligarchy of about fifty aristocratic families and the citizens who were organized into Roman assemblies (comitia) which were further delinated into curia, tribes and centuries.
The Senate would pass resolutions and magistrates would present them before their respective assemblies. The citizens would either approve or disapprove the resolutions. The counsels would then carry out the decree.
A republic is the rule of law. "...it is preferable for the law to rule rather than any one of the citizens, and according to this same principle, even if it be better for certain men to govern, they must be appointed as guardians of the laws and in subordination to them;... the law shall govern seems to recommend that God and reason alone shall govern..." (13)
A democracy puts the people above the law. Aristotle noted, "men ambitious of office by acting as popular leaders bring things to the point of the people's being sovereign even over the laws." (14)
The mentalities of these two styles of government are very different and it is an important distinction.
Aristotle says in V vii 7 that "constitutional government turns into a democracy". Then, all three, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle warn that, "Tyranny, then arises from no other form of government than democracy." "And Huey Long very penetratingly said that when fascism came to the United States it would call itself democracy". (15) See The Kyklos.
The history of mixed government goes back to the chief founders of New England. The early Massachusetts government was predominantly aristocratic. John Cotton and John Winthrop had an aversion to democracy. The Puritan preachers pointed out that Scriptures only approved monarchy and aristocracy. Democracy to them was the worst form of government. "At best, Winthrop and his friends believed in what they called 'a mixt aristocracy'". (15-a)
When the Articles of Confederation failed, a constitutional convention was convened to bring about a better form of federal government on 25 May 1787. These men who attended felt a deep antipathy to democracy. All of them thought that the protection of property was the main object of government. One of the most effective and brillant men to attend the Convention, Governor Robert Morris of Pennsylvania believed that the Senate should be an aristocratic body composed of rich men holding office for life. Elbridge Gerry, a delegate from Massachusetts, declared that he "abhorred" pure democracy as "the worst of all political evils". Edmund Randolph, the governor of Virginia, explained that the Virginia's Senate was designed as check against the tendencies of democracy. John Dickinson, another delegate, strongly urged that the United States Senate would be structured as nearly as possible to the House of Lords. (15-b) Alexander Hamilton, who had an extreme hatred of democracy, wanted the American government to mirror the British government and also wanted the Senate to be also styled along the same lines as the House of Lords. (15-c)
Woodrow Wilson in Division and Reunion (pg 12), wrote that "The Federal government was not by intention a democratic government. In plan and in structure it had been meant to check the sweep and power of popular majorities..." (15-d) Professor John D. Hicks in his book on The Federal Union said "Such statements could be multiplied almost at will." (15-e)
The tri-political concept of government can be seen in the United States Constitution.
The Presidency is the element of the monarchical office. The United States Senate is the representation of the aristocracy. The House of Representatives is the element of democracy, representing the people. Originally planned, the senate was supposed to be filled by appointments from the states' legislatures. The Senate, as originally defined, was supposed to be the inclusion of the natural aristocracy, the landed gentry, and a representation of state's interests, as a corporate entity, in the Federal Government. Madison said, "The Senate, on the other hand, will derive its powers from the States, as political and coequal societies; and these will be represented on the principle of equality in the Senate, as they now are in the existing Congress." (15a) The Senate was supposed to be a check and balance against the Presidency and the Demos, the House of Representatives. The Senate was supposed to be the guarantee of the rule of law. The Senate was supposed to be the backbone of the U.S. Constitution.
This is the necessity of a bicameral legislative house; i.e. the senate and the representatives. In Article III, sec 4, it states, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government..." This means that all the state governments must have a bi-carmel house with the upper house the seat of the aristocracy, not elected by the people. However, it should be noted that not all states have a bicameral legislature.
The word aristocracy is the combination of two Greek words: 'Aristos' means "the best" and 'kratos' means "power". Kratos is the same ending for the word democracy. Aristocracy is needed in every human institution. An example of this is the military; between the top commander and regular soldier is an intermediate body called the non-commissioned officers. The non-commissioned officers are given position of leadership due to merit and worth. In other words an aristocracy. Intermediate bodies are necessary in every human institution such as armies; factories, the foremen; the hospitals, nurses; churches, the lower clergy; etc. Hierarchy is throughout Nature. Societies are no different.
American institutions do not come from Athens but from Sparta, which was heavily influenced by Crete. Just as Crete gave the name of Europe, she is also the birthplace of 'mixed'/constitutional government. Plato discerned that "Persia and Athens show the fundamental elements of all political life exaggerated as far as possible in one direction and the other(the one monarchical, the other democratic)...the merit of Sparta is that she has been trying to blend them, and has therefore maintained herself for a long time." (17) A republic is really the Golden Mean between the extremes of democracy and Asian monarchical despotism.
These extremes are physical manifestations of the spiritual condition of the state. A democracy's mentality is that the people are sovereign over the laws, which really means that the people are God. Despotism, which was taken up by Alexander the Great, his successors and the Roman Emperors starting with Julius Caesar, holds that the king or Emperor makes the law so he is God. Werner Jaeger makes it clear that this is what Socrates sees that "A state is never power alone, but always the spiritual structure of the man whom it represents". (18)
The word "Republic" is applied in a much broader sense in modern times. After the French Revolution it came to be understood as a synonym for democracy. In the past hundred years it has evolved to simply refer to any non-monarchial from of government.
The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature states that the Romans
translated Plato into Latin and gave it the title Respublica, thus altering its meaning(19) The original Greek title of The Republic is Ty Politeia. (20) The Greek word for citizen is Polites. But because the Romans translated Plato's Politea as Republic, the revolutionaries of the French Revolution seeking to become "citizens" and run their own lives, gave themselves the title "Republicans" on the understanding that "republican" had the same meaning as "citizen".
Hence, since the French Revolution was a "democratic" movement the word "Democracy" and "Republic" came to be intertwined. Madison, in the Federalist Paper #39, uses the term "Republican branch" for the "House of Commons". In the twentieth century the word became even broader with Mussolini rejecting liberal democracy yet calling his state the "Italian Social Republic" and Hitler calling the Third Reich "a people's republic" (eine volkische Republik). Dr. Goebbles called Germany a "republican Fuhrer-state". (21)
What is a State
The Greeks defined differing governments by their dominant factor. Aristotle writes: "Now a constitution (Politeia) is the ordering of a state (Poleos) in respect of its various magistracies, and expecially the magistracy that is supreme over all matters. For the government is everywhere supreme over the state and the constitution is the government. (b) Our customary designation for a monarchy that aims at the common advantage is 'kingship'; for a government of more than one yet only a few 'aristocracy', ...while when the multitude govern the state with a view to the common advantage, it is called by the name common to all the forms of constitution, 'constitutional government'. (c) Where a government has a king, the dominant factor, it is called a monarchy. Where a government has an few nobles ruling, the dominant factor, it is called an aristocracy."The Greek aspect
The Spartan republic
Plato in the Laws records how the Cretans and the Spartans could not classify their own form of government:From Cicero
The Roman republic
Mentality between Republic and Democracy
Aristotle does not use the word democracy and republic interchangeably; nither does Socrates in Plato's Republic. They are quite different institutions.The American republic
Threefold structure
Aristocracy
Evolution of the "Republic"
Occurrences of the word "Republic"
References
Related sites
Bibliography
It is suggested to use of the Loeb Classical Library of Harvard University Press for technical purposes. The original language and the English translation is placed side by side.