Cicero's Social and Political Thought

VIII. Types of State

C H A P T E R E I G H T Types of State 1. The Three Simple Constitutions In the Republic, before Cicero shows that Rome is the ideal polity he surveys other forms of state, catalogues their strengths and weaknesses, and indicates why they do not measure up to his standard of the best. This project in political science entails some sort of typology of historical states. Cicero classifies them in two broad ways: according to the origin of the constitution, and by the nature of the government. From the standpoint of the origin of the constitution, a state is either founded by one man who gives it a system of laws and government, or is developed by many men over a lengthy period of time.1 Examples of the first given by Cicero are such ancient lawgivers and hero-founders as Minos of Crete, Lycurgus of Sparta, and Theseus of Athens, to be followed in that polis by Draco, Solon, Klcisthcnes, and Demetrius of Phalerum. Cicero's only illustration of the second mode of creating a constitution is Rome itself. Because of the fallibility of men, even of geniuses like the famous founders and codifiers, Cicero believes the second way to be superior. A constitution drafted at one time cannot provide for all future contingencies, whereas one like the Roman embodies the collective genius of many men and is worked out by experience to meet the test of time. Such a constitution is comparable to a living organism, flexible enough to adapt to changing conditions and circumstances, learning from others but utilizing their experience in a creative and experimental fashion. The Roman constitution, therefore, advancing "by a route which we may call nature's road, finally reaches the ideal 143 144 Cicero's Social and Political Thought condition."2 As Cicero visualizes the Roman constitution, it is the living embodiment of the mos maiorum, the fount of wisdom, the criterion of truth, and the measure of morality—indeed, the supreme authority over civil life. A second method of categorizing states, one emphasized by Cicero far more than the first, is by the nature of government. Every state possesses some kind of government, in the form of a deliberative body or consilium that arises from the same causes that account for the origin of the state itself.3 It is the type of government that determines the nature of the state, its constitution: "For you must understand that a government consists of its magistrates and those who direct its affairs, and that different types of states are recognized by their constitution of these magistracies."4 The function of the consilium or deliberative body forming the essence of government and differentiating one state from another can be assigned to one man, a regnum or kingship; to a select few, an optimatium or aristocracy; or to the whole body of citizens, a civitas popularis or democracy. These, then, arc the three simple types of states. Since the simple types are subject to decay and corruption, described in each case by Cicero, one would expect that in addition to the three types he would name their three corresponding corrupt forms, as do the Greeks: tyranny, oligarchy, and ochlocracy, or "mob rule." Cicero usually calls a king (rex) who rules unjustly a tymnnus or tyrant.5 Occasionally he refers to a tyrant as dominus (master, despot) and to his rule as dominatus (despotism), explaining in one passage that dominus in this context means "master of the people" (dominus populi), or what the Greeks call a tyrant (tyrannus).6 Once he employs "power of a faction" (potestas factionis ) to describe corrupt types of aristocracies or oligarchies like the rule of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens and the third year of the rule of the decemvirs in ancient Rome.7 The unjust government of the people, the corruption of democracy, when it "inflicts punishment on whomsoever it will, when it seizes, plunders, retains, and wastes whatever it will" is labeled in one passage dominatus multitudinis, "despotism of the multitude."8 So Cicero's three simple constitutions and their degenerate forms, if systematically classified (which he himself never bothers to do), arc something like the following: Rule of One Rule of the Few Rule of the Many Cicero is never concerned about an exact nomenclature for the unjust or corrupt forms of the simple constitutions, probably because they are not genuine states...