Transcript Tuesday, May 17

Polybius
The Birth of the Republic
Polybius (204-122 B.C.)
► 338
B.C. The Greeks become subjects of
Macedonia (Alexander, Aristotle’s disciple)
► 146 B.C. Greece (a part of Macedonia) is turned
into a province of the Roman Empire
 A thousand Greek political leaders (Aechean League)
and intellectuals deported to Rome (held in prison for 17
years, 300 survived). Polybius was one of the survivors.
► Through
time, Polybius gets acquainted with
Roman leaders and becomes “a friend and ally of
Rome” (participates in military and diplomatic
missions)
Histories
► 40
books (only 5 books preserved, plus bits and
pieces of the others).
► Examines the period in between the Second Punic
War (219 B.C.) to the Roman conquest of Macedon
(167 B.C.)
► First “universal political history”
► Polybius is the first “institutionalist”
 Rome’s dominance resulted from Roman political
institutions, values, and practices.
► Theorist
of “mixed constitutions” and the system of
“checks and balances” (precursor of Montesquieu
and the Federalists)
Polybius’ interpretation
Consuls
Senate
Tribunes
Roman Republic (509 B.C. to 44 or 31 B.C.):
Main Institutions
Senate (patricians)
Deliberative body
Assemblies
(legislative, judicial, and
Electoral functions
Tribunes (plebeians)
Immunity, imperium, veto
(494 B.C.)
Consuls (2) (+praetor)
In 88 B.C. Sulla disempowered the popular assemblies (ex: created a judiciary)
The Beginnings
► “What
are the beginnings I speak of and what is
the first origin of political societies? When owing
to floods, famines, failure of crops or other such
causes there occurs such a destruction of the
human race as tradition tells us has more than
once happened, and as we must believe will often
happen again, all arts and crafts perishing at the
same time, then in the course of time, when
springing from the survivors as from seeds men
have again increased in numbers and just like
other animals form herds… it is a necessary
consequence that the man who excels in bodily
strength and in courage will lead and rule over the
rest.” (p. 120)  Kingship
(Natural) Cycle

Kingship
Mob Rule
Democracy
Tyranny
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
“All existing things are subject to decay and change…” (126)
Can we avoid political decay?
► When
Democracy degenerates into MobRule, the people…
“…institute the rule of violence; and now uniting
their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until
they degenerate again into perfect savages and
find once more a master and monarch.
Such is the cycle of political revolution, the
course appointed by nature in which constitutions
change, disappear, and finally return to the point
from which they started.”
“…each constitution has a vice…”
► “…
In kingship it is despotism, in aristocracy
oligarchy, and in democracy the savage rule
of violence; and it is impossible… that each
of these should not in course of time
change into its vicious form.” (122)
Fragile Constitutions
► “Lycurgus
had perfectly well understood
that all the above changes take place
necessarily and naturally, and had taken
into consideration that every variety of
constitution which is simple and formed on
one principle is precarious, as it is soon
perverted into the corrupt form which is
proper to it and naturally follows it.” (122)
Lycurgus’ Solution
► Lycurgus
incorporated to the constitution “all
the good and distinctive features of the best
governments, so that none of the principles
should grow unduly and be perverted into its
allied evil, but that, the force of each being
neutralized by that of the others, neither of
them should prevail and outbalance another,
but that the constitution should remain for
long in a state of equilibrium…” (p 122)
Checks and balances, stability, strength… Avoidance of
Corruption and Decay
Lycurgus + the Romans
► Lycurgus
theorized
what the Romans did.
One
Kingship
Consuls
Few
Aristocracy
The Senate
Many
Democracy
The People
(tribunes)
Religion and superstition (“the
terrors of hell”) are necessary to
stabilize the system
How is Polybius’ constitution
different from the U.S.?
► Republican
tradition
 Rome
 Macchiavelli
 The Federalist Papers
Does the Republic achieve its
promises? (avoidance of
corruption, power equally
distributed)
Present theoretical applications of
Polybius
► Michael
Hardt and Antonio Negri: Empire
(Harvard University Press, 2000)
 New decentered form of global sovereignty
that gets inspiration in the U.S. constitution
and the Republican tradition.
 Empire has the form of a Republic