The Influence Of Cicero On The Prefect Form Of Government

The United-States government, as any other government, preforms a variety of functions that can directly or indirectly impact the lives of the American populous. Due to the tremendous amount of power, and authority a government can attain, the founding fathers set out to create a constitution which would impose limitations on the power of government, in relation to the people’s rights.
As observed in the Constitution and the Declaration of independence, the American government is theoretically run on a shared set of political principles. Amongst those values is the balance, and separation of powers—This, in order to keep the government big enough to enforce its authority in protecting the people, but small enough not to intercede on the individual’s
Cicero sought to define the prefect form of government. De Republica by Cicero certainly displays similarities to Plato’s approach— especially in that it is a discourse not only on politics but also about the good life. After abandoning the Epicurean notions which dictated one to"avoid mental agitation" Cicero would conclude that virtues sought by the sage can only be attainable through being reinforced by the power of justice and laws. Justice and law according to Cicero are necessary components of a free, yet fair society which would guarantee the people their
It is deemed by these philosophers alike as the worst of all political regimes which leads to the ultimate stage of the degeneration of power. Polybius the Greek philosopher who heavily theorized on the idea describes anacyclosis as a cycle of six phases which tilt monarchy into tyranny, to which follows the aristocracy which then degrades into an oligarchy. Again as democracy aims to remedy the oligarchy in the sixth phase, the worst of all the regimes springs up—that of the ochlocracy or mob rule. Mob rule then births a monarch repeating the entire cycle. This idea backed by Plato, presented by Machiavelli and implemented by those who framed the Constitution assures protection against tyranny, or political domination of one over the population, thus safeguarding that it would not dismantle into inter societal violence, to only end in the victory of one.
The political thought of Cicero is therefore, in some respects, amplified in the thoughts of the founding fathers as they drew the American system of governance. Cicero correspondingly emphasized the necessity for distribution of power between the people and the government officials, the Senate and the people of Rome, in