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Machiavelli turned the argument on its head. He said the Roman Republic was great because it had all three forms of government at the same time: the consuls we
by pyuser583 4y ago
Machiavelli turned the argument on its head.
He said the Roman Republic was great because it had all three forms of government at the same time: the consuls were “monarchs”, the senate was “aristocratic”, and the people/tribune of the plebes were the “democracy.”
This is where the modern idea of separation of powers comes from.
- thom 4y agoIt's hard to prove this, but it's very likely he just took this idea from Polybius.
- pyuser583 4y agoOooh interesting … Some searching brings up this: https://jhiblog.org/2021/03/04/machiavellis-debt-to-polybius/ https://jhiblog.org/2021/03/04/machiavellis-debt-to-polybius.... I’ll have to read and digest later.