Constitutional cycle
The constitutional cycle ( ancient Greek ἀνακύκλωσις anakyklosis ) is primarily that of the historian Polybius in the 2nd century BC. Chr. Designed system of the constitutional doctrine called. It is based on the Aristotelian classification of the ancient constitutions and assumes that there is an inevitable process of decay, as a result of which the various constitutions follow one another cyclically. According to the thesis on which the model is based, the phenomenon of decadence plays a central role: The decline of virtues within the city-states , for example in the form of a declining orientation towards the common good, is responsible for the corruption of previously good and just constitutional orders and despotic ones Governments would be replaced. In their place, after a phase of chaos, dissatisfaction and power struggles, the next phase of the constitutional cycle follows.
The idea of a constitutional cycle had a great influence on the theorists of republicanism , for example on the demand for a mixed constitution by Marcus Tullius Cicero , which was supposed to stabilize the political order, Niccoló Machiavelli's draft republic , Montesquieu's concept of the separation of powers, and the mixed constitution of the United States of America (see e.g. Federalist No. 40 ).
The cycle of constitutions in Plato
According to Plato, the aristocracy can be followed by the timocracy , which in turn can be replaced by the oligarchy , then democracy and finally tyranny (cf. also the corresponding old ideas of a golden age or of a progressive deterioration in conditions). The prevailing opinion is that this is not a completely closed cycle.
Aristotle's cycle of constitutions
Aristotle differentiates between six forms of government : monarchy (sole rule ), aristocracy (rule of the best) and politics as good forms as well as their degenerate counterparts tyranny , oligarchy (rule of a few) and democracy (defined by him as rule of the free-born poor; for differentiation today also referred to as ochlocracy to today's concept of democracy ). Aristotle believes that a good form of government tends to degenerate, that the next good form then emerges from this degenerate form, etc. To avoid this cycle, he pleads for a form of mixed constitution between democracy and oligarchy, which he again calls politics.
- Monarchy → tyranny,
- Tyranny → aristocracy,
- Aristocracy → oligarchy (or plutocracy as a special case),
- Oligarchy → politics,
- Politics → Democracy in the sense of ochlocracy and laocracy,
- Democracy → monarchy ...
Cycle of constitutions at Polybius
About the cycle of constitutions ( πολιτειῶν ἀνακύκλωσις politeíōn anakýklōsis ) Polybios writes in the 6th book of his universal history (6,9). He sees six or seven types of constitution in history, which alternate in a constant cycle and according to a fixed rule.
| Number of rulers |
Common good | Selfishness |
|---|---|---|
| One | monarchy | Tyranny |
| Some | aristocracy | oligarchy |
| All | democracy | Ochlocracy |
These are the three legitimate, “good” forms of monarchy , aristocracy and democracy, as well as their associated forms of decay of tyranny, oligarchy and ochlocracy. At the beginning of the cycle there is a one-time chief rule or primordial monarchy that is not included in the anakyklosis.
The three forms of decline arise inevitably through moral decline (the security of their life as rulers causes greed , arrogance , injustice and lust for power in them ) and the resulting abuse of power by the ruler or the ruling group and are overthrown again by a newly forming group . In this way, tyranny compulsorily replaces the monarchy, only to be overthrown. The emerging aristocracy also suffers the fate that the rulers abuse their power and the system is transformed into an oligarchy that no longer has the common good but its own good in mind. This in turn is being replaced by democracy, the rule of the people, which as the last stage inevitably develops into ochlocracy, the rule of the mob. Here the cycle closes when a strong individual soars and installs a monarchy again.
Polybios differentiates between his constitutional types on the one hand according to the number of those who exercise power and on the other hand, whether the power is exercised with the consent of the subjects or not.
In the anakyklosis theory, Polybios combines three conceptual principles that are universal for him: On the one hand, the idea that - based on the biological process - all ongoing constitutional processes also go through the natural developmental steps of becoming, being and passing away. The second constant is the idea that the number of rulers is gradually increasing and, finally, the third component is the Kyklos way of thinking, expressed by the fact that monarchy follows again after ochlocracy.
Aristotle had taken the view that states with mixed constitutions such as the commercial republic of Carthage , Sparta and the Roman Republic were protected from this cycle of decline. Polybius, who was less interested in models than in concrete constitutions, considered this protection to be long-lasting, but not permanent; this assessment was confirmed for Carthage and Rome.
Machiavelli cycle of constitutions
In the Renaissance , Niccolò Machiavelli revived the view of history as a cycle of forms of government that was widespread in antiquity . He had in a volgarizzamento , d. H. in vernacular translation, Polybios received:
“All the forms mentioned are therefore ominous, because of the brevity of the life of the three good and because of the corruption of the three bad. Therefore, recognizing these shortcomings, the wise legislators avoided each of the three good forms of government in and of themselves and chose one made up of all three. They then considered this to be the most solid and permanent, since monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, united in one and the same state, monitor each other. "
Ancient sources
See also
literature
- Alexander Demandt : Ancient forms of government. A Comparative Constitutional History of the Old World . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-05-002794-0 , pp. 40 .
- Henning Ottmann : Die Römer (= history of political thought . Volume 2 , sub-volume 1). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01631-5 .
- Stephan Podes: Polybios' anakyklosis theory, discrete state systems and the problem of mixed constitution . In: Klio. Contributions to ancient history . tape 73 , 1991, pp. 382-390 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Marshall Davies Lloyd (1998): Polybius and the Founding Fathers: the separation of powers. ( Full text online )
- ^ Plato, Politeia 8.
- ^ Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde : History of the legal and state philosophy . 2nd Edition. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, ISBN 3-16-149165-3 , p. 126 f .
- ↑ Stephan Podes: Polybios' Anakyklosis-doctrine, discrete state systems and the problem of the mixed constitution . In: Klio. Contributions to ancient history . tape 73 , 1991, pp. 382-390 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Blösel : The Anakyklosis Theory and the Constitution of Rome in the Mirror of the Sixth Book of Polybios and Ciceros De re publica, Book II . In: Hermes. Journal of Classical Philology . tape 126 , 1998, pp. 31-57 .
- ^ Karl-Ernst Petzold : Kyklos and Telos in the historical thinking of Polybius . In: Saeculum. Universal History Yearbook . tape 28 , 1977, pp. 253-290 .
- ↑ Hansulrich Labuske: On the historical-philosophical conception of Polybios . In: Klio. Contributions to ancient history . tape 59 , 1977, pp. 403-413 .