Talk:Republic/removed
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This text has been removed from the main republic article, see: talk:republic for details
Another, older definition of the term uses the term "republic" to describe what is commonly called a representative democracy; it restricts the term "democracy" to refer only to direct democracy. The difficulty with this latter term is that it exists in principle only. No nation practices direct democracy and, thus, each must be a republic. See democracy for further discussion of this term usage and its history. Even this usage does not cover the many republics, past and present, that are not democratic at all (though few modern ones admit their lack of democracy).
Using this older meaning, it is said that the United States is a federal republic, not a democracy. (Although most people, including most Americans, call it a democracy, they are using the modern definition, not the older one referred to here). This usage of the term republic was particularly common around the time of the American Founding Fathers. The authors of the United States Constitution intentionally chose what they called a republic for several reasons. For one, it is impractical to collect votes from every citizen on every political issue. In theory, representatives would be more well-informed and less emotional than the general populace. Furthermore, a republic can be contrived to protect against the "tyranny of the majority." The Federalist Papers outline the idea that pure democracy is actually quite dangerous, because it allows a majority to infringe upon the rights of a minority. By forming what they called a Republic, in which representatives are chosen in many different ways (the President, House, Senate, and state officials are all elected differently), it is more difficult for a majority to control enough of the government to infringe upon a minority
Republic is a term coined by Cicero. It is from two Latin words res(thing) and publica (public); it means 'the public thing(s)'. The working definition of republic has an impact on the theory of the United States Constitution. Mixed government goes by two English names: Republic or Commonwealth. A Republic, according to one theory, is a form of government that has mixed the best elements of a monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. A Republic is tri-political government. It includes all classes in government and excludes none. It provides checks and balances on all so that all live in harmony. A Republic is an harmony of the state under the rule of law.
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From the Greek
There is another word that the Founding Fathers knew, that also typifies this type of government. It is from the Greek and it is “politevma”. St. Paul uses it twice in the New Testament. Both Cicero and the New Testament (and the Bible in general) had great influence in the formation of America.
In Philippians 3:20, St. Paul says, "But our commonwealth is in heaven, …". St. Paul uses the word "politevma'. It is translated into the old English word, the commonwealth. A commonwealth is another word for a republic. Massachusetts, Kentucky and others are not states; their official name is “Commonwealths”.
St. Paul uses this word again in Eph 2.12 when he refers to the state of the Chosen People as “the commonwealth of Israel”. What is he describing here?
God is the King and the judges were the aristocracy, through merit, that governed Israel. And the Law of God, the Torah, ruled the people. The prophet Samuel tried to keep the republic by unsuccessfully dissuading the people from making a monarchy.
He is describing a government that is mixed of three elements and a particular mentality. Cicero also terms the republic like this as a “mixed form of constitution”. (1)
A republican form of government is a mixture of the best elements of the three forms of government; the monarchy, the aristocracy and the democracy. “Poli” in the Greek word means `many'. The period of the judges in Hebrew history is a 'politevma'. 'Politevma' is the Greek word for constitutional government. This word is 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 POLITEIAN; “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)
From Cicero
The American constitution was derived from Cicero. 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) Coining the term "Republic", 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 the 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)
Aristotle does not use the word democracy and republic interchangeably. Neither does Socrates in Plato's Republic. They are quite different institutions.
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)
Threefold structure
What is the example of this tri-political form of Government in the Constitution?
The Presidency is the element of the monarchical office. The House of Representatives is the element of democracy. But what element represents the aristocracy? It was supposed to be the Senate! Originally planned, the senate was supposed to be filled by appointments from the states’ legislators. 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. 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 real GUARANTEE of the rule of law. The Senate was supposed to be the backbone of the U.S. Constitution.
Seventeenth Amendment
It has been claimed that the passage of the XVII amendment in 1913 fundamentally changed the character of the American government, demolished 'the checks and balances' necessary for good government and converted the American government from a Republic to a democracy. There is now no check on the demos.
This is the necessity of a bi-cameral 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…” What does this mean (and is not being practiced or obeyed today)? The Senators of the respective state houses should be appointed by the seats of county government. These appointees should be men of outstanding rank and stature, landed, and knowledgeable; the aristocracy. The State’s Senate should be not only the representation of the natural aristocracy but also representation of the counties in the State Government. As it stands today, federal governments and state governments are not practicing a tri-political government.
Aristocracy
What is an ‘aristocracy”? An 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. 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 and the Asian despotism, which was taken up by Alexander the Great, his successors and the Roman Emperors starting with Julius Caesar, is 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)
References
(1) Cicero, On Government, translated by Michael Grant, Penguin Books, NY, l993. On the State, 23-4; pg 180.
(2) Aristotle, Politics, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 1932 bk II iii 10; 1265b 30-35; Pg 107.
(3) Ibid, Bk IV x 4; 1297a 5-10; Pg 339.
(4) Ibid, Bk II iii 9; 1265b 25; Pg 105
(5) Ibid, Bk IV vi 2; 1293b 30-35; Pg 315
(6) The Portable Greek Historians: The Essence of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius; edited by M. I. Finley, The Viking Press, NY, NY, l959. Polybius bk VI sec 3; Pg 475
(7) Plutarch, The Lives, trans by John Dryden, rev. by Arthur Clough, The Modern Library, NY. Pg 52.
(8) Finley, Pg 482
(9) Ibid, Bk V sec. 48; Pg 493
(10) Cicero, On Government, Pg 7 (in the footnote)
(11) Ibid, On Laws III 14-15; Pg 200.
(12) Ibid, Pgs 199-200
(13) Aristotle, Politics, XXI, trans. by H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, l990. Politics Bk III, xi3-5; 1287a; Pgs 263-265.
(14) Ibid, Politics, Bk V. iv 6; 1305a 30-35; pg 401.
(15) Liberty or Equality, Kurt von Kuenhelt-Leddihn, Christendom Press, pg 123.
(16) On Divorce, Louis de Bonald, trans by Nicholas Davidson, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ, l992. pg 45-46. He uses the words power, minister, and subject. “The Christian religion itself, which I shall never cite in the course of this work except to show its conformity with reason calls man the reason, the head, the power of woman: Vir caput est mulieris, says Saint Paul. It call the woman the helper or minister of man: “Let us make man,” says Genesis, “a helper similar to him.” It call the child a subject, since it tells it, in a thousand places, to obey its parents.”
(17) Padeia, The Ideals of Greek Culture, Werner Jaeger, translated by Gilbert Highet, Oxford University Press, NY, l944. Vol III, pg 236. References to Plato’s Laws 693d-e
(18) Ibid, Vol III, pg