constitutionalism

Political constitutionalism: from mixed government to representative democracy

The theory of mixed government originated with ancient thought and the classification of political systems on the basis of whether one, a few, or many ruled. According to this theory, the three basic types of polity—monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy—were liable to degenerate into tyranny, oligarchy, and anarchy, respectively. This corruption stemmed from the concentration of power in the hands of a single person or group, which created a temptation to its abuse through allowing arbitrary rule. The solution was to ensure moderation and proportion by combining or mixing various types. As a result, the virtues of each form of government, namely, a strong executive, the involvement of the “better” elements of society, and popular legitimacy, theoretically could be obtained without the corresponding vices.

Three elements underlie this classic theory of mixed government. First, arbitrary power was defined as the capacity of one individual or group to dominate another—that is, to possess the ability to rule them without consulting their interests. To be dominated in such an arbitrary way was to be reduced to the condition of a slave who must act as his or her master wills. Overcoming arbitrariness so conceived requires that a condition of political equality exist among all free citizens. Only then will no one person or group be able to think or act as the master of others. Second, the means to minimize such domination was to ensure that no one could rule without the support of at least one other individual or body. The aim was to so mix social classes and factions in decision making to ensure that their interests were given equal consideration, with each being forced to “hear the other side.” To quote another republican motto, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance,” with each group watching over the others to ensure that none of them dominated the other by ignoring their concerns. Third, the balance to be achieved was one that aspired to harmonize different social interests and maintain the stability of the polity, preventing so far as was possible the inevitable degeneration into one of the corrupt forms of government.

Thus, mixed government provides a model of constitutionalism according to the institutions that structure the way decisions are taken. Although elements of the theory can be found in Aristotle’s Politics, the locus classicus is Book VI of Polybius’s Histories. He underlined its prime purpose as providing mechanisms whereby no individual, body, or group could rule alone, thereby curbing the descent into tyranny, oligarchy, or anarchy. Polybius regarded the republican constitution of ancient Rome as exemplifying this theory. Thus, the consuls (highest of the ordinary magistracies in the ancient Roman Republic) provided the monarchical element, the Senate provided the aristocratic, while the popular element was represented by the Tribunes of the People, the Plebeian Council, and the electoral, judicial, and legislative powers the people could exercise directly. As he noted, the key feature of Roman republican government was that each of these three groups exercised slightly different powers but required the cooperation of the others to do so. So consuls might exercise war powers, yet they needed the Senate to approve generals, reward them, and provide the necessary funds, whereas the people approved treaties and could try high officials and generals for misconduct. Meanwhile, the more-executive roles possessing the most discretion were further weakened by their power being shared among multiple officeholders and its being dependent on elections and of short duration. Thus, there were two consuls, each able to veto the other’s decisions; 10 tribunes with similar countervailing powers; and so on, with none able to hold office for more than a year.

The resulting need for different groups to work together was summarized in the slogan Senatus Populusque Romanus (“The Senate and the Roman People,” frequently abbreviated to SPQR). In reality, though, their relationship was far from harmonious, with the patrician element largely predominating, except when factional disputes led a given group among them to seek the support of the plebeians (the general citizenry). The conflict between social classes was given greater emphasis by Niccolò Machiavelli, who offered a radical version of the Polybian argument in his Discorsi. He observed how all polities contain two classes, the nobles (grandi) and the people (popolo), whose desires conflict. However, he claimed that their discord, far from being destructive, actively promoted “all the laws made in favour of liberty”—each was led to promote freedom by virtue of seeking ways of checking the arbitrary power of the other. However, like Polybius, Machiavelli believed that all systems ultimately become corrupt and degenerate into either tyranny or anarchy—the balance of power merely serving to stave off this inevitable cycle.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

The 17th and 18th centuries brought three main changes to the doctrine. The first, explored below, was the development of the separation of powers as a variation on the doctrine of mixed government. The theory of mixed government involves no clear distinction between the different branches of government. Executive, legislative, and especially judicial tasks were shared between the different social classes and exercised by all the government bodies. Indeed, the popular element exercised certain legislative and judicial functions directly through plebiscites and as jurors. The second change was in the type of “balance” mixed government was supposed to achieve. The classic theory took the idea of the “body” politic literally. Just as bodily health was said to rely on a sound physical constitution and a balanced diet and way of life, so the health of the polity depended on a sound constitution that achieved a “natural” balance between the various organs and “humors” of the political body. As we saw, in line with this organic imagery, the aim was to hold off the inevitable degeneration and corruption of the system. Balance was a static equilibrium, designed to maintain the status quo. However, the 17th and 18th centuries saw a new, more dynamic notion of balance, inspired by Newtonian physics and based on mechanics and physical forces. In this conception, balance could involve a harnessing of opposed forces, holding them in a dynamic equilibrium that combined and increased their joint power. The change can be seen in the notion of the “balance of trade,” which went from being an equal exchange of goods between states to a competition between trading nations that encouraged their mutual productivity and innovation. In this account, the “cycle of life,” where growth was followed by decay, became replaced by the idea of progress, in which change and transformation had positive connotations.

The third development drew on the first two. This was the idea that political balance now consisted of the competition between government and a “loyal” opposition. As parties evolved from simple factions and patronage networks among rivals for office to electoral machines defined as much by ideology and social composition as by the personal ambitions and interests of the political class, they became the organs of this new type of balance. In keeping with the older theory of mixed government, one of the virtues of parties was their ability to mix different social classes and interests and combine them around a common program. Indeed, just as economic competition led rival firms to compete over price, innovate, and explore untapped markets, so electoral competition led rival parties to compete over policy efficiency and effectiveness, devise novel forms of delivery, and focus on areas appealing to different sections of the electorate. This modern form of political constitutionalism has proven constitutional in both form and substance. Equal votes, majority rule, and competitive party elections offer a mechanism for impartially and equitably weighing and combining the views of millions of citizens about the nature of the public good. And in making politicians popularly accountable, it gives them an incentive to rule in nonarbitrary ways that respond to the concerns of the different minorities that form any working majority, thereby upholding both rights and the public interest rather than their own interests.

Meanwhile, mixed government has developed in new ways through federal and convocational arrangements that likewise seek to ensure that different kinds of interest are involved in the policy- and lawmaking processes on an equal basis. Yet nobody would deny that the systems of most democracies are far from perfect, and it has become increasingly common to look to other constitutional traditions to rectify these problems.