{{Short description|Government combining elements of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy}}
{{redirect|Balance of powers|other uses|Balance of power (disambiguation){{!}}Balance of power}}
{{distinguish|Hybrid regime}}
{{Forms of government}}

'''Mixed government''', or '''mixed constitution''', is a form of government that combines elements of [[democracy]], [[aristocracy]], and [[monarchy]], ostensibly making impossible their respective degenerations, which are conceived in [[Aristotle]]'s [[Politics (Aristotle)|''Politics'']] as [[anarchy]], [[oligarchy]], and [[tyranny]]. The idea was popularized during [[classical antiquity]] in order to describe the stability, the innovation and the success of the [[republic]] as a form of government developed under the [[Constitution of the Roman Republic|Roman constitution]].

Unlike [[classical democracy]], aristocracy, or monarchy, under a mixed government rulers are elected by citizens rather than acquiring their positions by inheritance or [[sortition]] (at the Greco-Roman time, sortition was conventionally regarded as the principal characteristic of classical democracy).<ref>{{cite book |last=Headlam |first=James Wycliffe |title=Election by Lot at Athens |url=https://archive.org/details/electionbylotata00headuoft |date=1891 |page=[https://archive.org/details/electionbylotata00headuoft/page/12 12]|publisher=Cambridge, Univ. Press }}</ref> The concept of a mixed government was studied during the [[Renaissance]] and the [[Age of Enlightenment|Age of Reason]] by [[Niccolò Machiavelli]], [[Giambattista Vico]], [[Immanuel Kant]], [[Thomas Hobbes]], and others. It was and still is a very important theory among supporters of [[republicanism]]. Various schools have described modern polities, such as the [[European Union]] and the [[United States]], as possessing mixed constitutions.

==Ancient Greek philosophers==
[[Plato]] in his book ''[[The Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'' divided governments into five basic types (four being existing forms and one being Plato's ideal form, which exists "only in speech"): 
*[[democracy]]: government by the many
*[[oligarchy]]: government by the few
*[[timocracy]]: government by the honored or valued
*[[tyranny]]: government by one for himself
*[[aristocracy]]: government by the best (Plato's ideal form of government)

Plato found flaws with all existing forms of government and thus concluded that aristocracy, which emphasizes virtue and wisdom, is the purest form of government. [[Aristotle]] largely embraced Plato's ideas and in his [[Politics (Aristotle)|''Politics'']] three types (excluding timocracy) are discussed in detail. Aristotle considers constitutional government (a combination of oligarchy and democracy under law) the ideal form of government, but he observes that none of the three are healthy and that states will cycle between the three forms in an abrupt and chaotic process known as the [[kyklos]] or [[anacyclosis]]. In his ''Politics'', he lists a number of theories of how to create a stable government. One of these options is creating a government that is a mix of all three forms of government. [[Polybius]] argued that most states have a government system that is composed of "more than one" of these basic principles, which then was called a mixed government system.<ref>Heinrich August Winkler (2012), ''Geschichte des Westens. Von den Anfängen in der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert'', Third Edition, Munich (Germany), {{ISBN|978-3-406-59235-5}}, p. 179</ref>

==Roman era==
{{Republicanism sidebar}}
The ideal of a mixed government was popularized by [[Polybius]], who saw the [[Roman Republic]] as a manifestation of Aristotle's theory (Millar, 2002). Monarchy was embodied by the [[consul]]s, the aristocracy by the [[Roman Senate|Senate]] and democracy by the elections and great public gatherings of the [[Roman assemblies|assemblies]]. Each institution complements and also checks the others, presumably guaranteeing stability and prosperity.  Polybius was very influential and his ideas were embraced by [[Cicero]] (Millar, 2002).

==Middle Ages==
[[St. Thomas Aquinas]] argued in his letter ''On Kingship'' that a monarchy, with some limitations set by an aristocracy and democratic elements, was the best and most just form of government. He also emphasized the monarch's duty to uphold the divine and [[natural law]] and abide by limitations imposed on the monarch by custom and existing law.

==Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment==
[[Cicero]] became extremely well regarded during the [[Renaissance]] and many of his ideas were embraced. Polybius was also rediscovered and the positive view of mixed governments became a central aspect of Renaissance political science integrated into the developing notion of [[republicanism]]. In order to minimise the misuse of political power, [[John Calvin]] advocated a mixture of [[aristocracy]] and [[democracy]] as the best form of government. He praised the advantages of democracy: "It is an invaluable gift if God allows a people to elect its overlords and magistrates". To further safeguard the rights and liberties of those who are ordinary, Calvin also favored the distribution of power to several political institutions ([[separation of powers]]).<ref>Jan Weerda, ''Calvin'', in: ''Evangelisches Soziallexikon'', Third Edition, Stuttgart (Germany), 1958, col. 210</ref> Mixed government theories became extremely popular in the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and were discussed in detail by [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[John Locke]], [[Giambattista Vico]], [[Montesquieu]], [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] and [[Immanuel Kant]]. Apart from his contemporaries, only Montesquieu became widely acknowledged as the author of a concept of separation of powers (although he wrote rather on their "distribution").<ref>Winkler (2012), pp. 184ff</ref>

According to some scholars, for example, [[Heinrich August Winkler]], the notion also influenced the writers of the [[United States Constitution]] who based the idea of [[checks and balances]], in part, upon the ancient theory.<ref>Winkler (2012), p. 301</ref> The constitution of Britain during the Victorian Era with a Parliament composed of the Sovereign (monarchy), a House of Lords (aristocracy) and House of Commons (democracy) is a prime example of a mixed constitution in the 19th century.<ref>Heinrich August Winkler (2012), pp. 151ff</ref> This political system had its roots in two closely related developments in seventeenth-century England. First, a series of political upheavals—the [[English Civil War|Civil War]] (Puritan Revolution), the [[exclusion crisis]] of 1679–1681, and the [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688. Second, an intense public debate about the best, most liberal and most stable form of government. Its main participants were [[John Milton]], [[John Locke]], [[Algernon Sidney]] and [[James Harrington (author)|James Harrington]]. Their thinking became the basis of the radical [[Whig (British political party)|Whig]] ideology. It "described two sorts of threats to political freedom: a general decay of the people which would invite the intrusion of evil and despotic rulers, and the encroachment of executive authority upon the legislature, the attempt that power always made to subdue the liberty protected by mixed government. The [[American Revolution]] revealed that this radical Whig understanding of politics had embedded itself deeply in American minds. ... Radical Whig perceptions of politics attracted widespread support in America because they revived the traditional concerns of a [[Protestantism|Protestant]] culture that had always verged on [[Puritanism]]. That moral decay threatened free government could not come as a surprise to a people whose fathers had fled England to escape sin".<ref>Robert Middlekauff (2005), ''The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789'', Revised and Expanded Edition, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-531588-2}}, pp. 51-52</ref>

18th-century Whigs, or [[commonwealthmen]], such as [[John Trenchard (writer)|John Trenchard]], [[Thomas Gordon (writer)|Thomas Gordon]] and [[Benjamin Hoadly]] "praised the mixed constitution of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, and they attributed English liberty to it; and like Locke they postulated a state of nature from which rights arose which the civil polity, created by mutual consent, guaranteed; they argued that a contract formed government and sovereignty resided in the people". So mixed government is the core of both the British form of modern-era democracy, [[constitutional monarchy]], and the American model: [[republicanism]].<ref>Winkler (2012), pp. 142ff</ref><ref>Middlekauff (2005), pp. 136ff</ref><ref>Cf. Thomas S. Kidd (2010), ''God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution'', New York, N.Y., {{ISBN|978-0-465-00235-1}}, pp. 7-8</ref> The "father" of the American constitution, [[James Madison]], stated in [[Federalist No. 40|Federalist Paper No. 40]] that the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention of 1787]] created a mixed constitution. Madison referred to Polybius in [[Federalist No. 63|Federalist Paper No. 63]].<ref>Cf. Heinrich August Winkler (2012), pp. 290ff</ref> However, much more important was that "most" ideas that the American Revolutionaries put into their political system "were a part of the great tradition of the eighteenth-century commonwealthmen, the radical Whig ideology".<ref>Middlekauff (2005), p. 51</ref>

==Modern era==
===United States===
One school of scholarship based mainly in the United States considers mixed government to be the central characteristic of a republic and holds that the United States has rule by the one (the [[President of the United States|President]]; monarchy), rule by the few (the [[United States Senate|Senate]]; democracy elected since 1912), and rule by the many ([[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]]; democracy elected).<ref>{{cite web | title=Constitution Day 2021: Mixed Government, Bicameralism, and the Creation of the U.S. Senate | url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/senate-stories/constitution-day-2021-mixed-government-bicameralism.htm | date=September 17, 2021 | work=U.S. Senate | access-date=December 30, 2021}}</ref> Another school of thought in the U.S. says the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] has taken on the role of "The Best" in the 21st century, ensuring a continuing separation of authority by offsetting the direct election of senators and preserving the mixing of democracy and monarchy.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rosen |first1=Zivi S. |date=2006 |title=The Irony of Populism: The Republican Shift and the Inevitability of American Aristocracy |url=https://www.regent.edu/acad/schlaw/student_life/studentorgs/lawreview/docs/issues/v18n2/3%20Rosen.pdf |journal=[[Regent University|Regent University Law Review]] |volume=18 |pages=287–89 |access-date=December 30, 2021}}</ref>

===European Union===
According to a view, in the [[European Union]] context the [[Commission President]] represents the rule by the one while the Commission represents the aristocratic dimension and the Parliament represents the democratic dimension.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=WpPjNSLk1twC&pg=PA107  Explaining the stability of the EU through the concept of a Mixed Constitution].</ref>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
*[[Anacyclosis]]
*[[Constitutionalism]]
*[[Constitutional economics]]
*[[Crowned republic]]
*[[Fusion of powers]]
*[[Rule according to higher law]]
*[[Republic (Plato)|Plato's ''Republic'']]
*[[Politics (Aristotle)|Aristotle's ''Politics'']]
*[[Qualified democracy]]
*[[Separation of powers]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.mlloyd.org/mdl-indx/polybius/intro.htm Polybius and the Founding Fathers: the separation of powers]
*[http://www.constitution.org/eng/repang.htm ''De Republica Anglorum''], Sir Thomas Smyth's description of the English Constitution under Queen [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Constitutional law]]
[[Category:Mixed government| ]]