Plato and Aristotle on Constitutionalism by Raymond Polin

Author:Raymond Polin [Polin, Raymond]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General
ISBN: 9780429826672
Google: MziDDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 43659382
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

Council and Assembly: Checks and Balances or Division of Functions?

Aristotle was at least aware of the concept of checks and balances, and also of the constitutional safeguards provided by courts that function for the safety of the individual. It may be argued, however, that what is described as in actual operation represented more a division of duties rather than a mutual or countervailing check and countercheck system. But that is not entirely so. We find a law court acting as a check upon the Council. We find the Council acting as a check upon the magistrates. We find the right of a private individual to impeach any magistrate before the Council. We find the right of the magistrates to appeal to a law court. We find the Council examines its members for the ensuing year and the nine Archons. We also find control of public monies and the currency in the hands of the probouleutic Council (the boulé:βουλή) and the popular Assembly (the ekklesiá: ἐκκλεσíα). Aristotle’s report of this system is as follows:

In former times the Council had full powers to inflict fines and imprisonment and death; and it was when it had dragged of Lysimachus to the executioner, and he was sitting in the immediate expectation of death, that Eumelides of Alŏpecē deprived it of its powers,3 (3 Or ‘rescued him from its hands.’) maintaining that no citizen ought to be put to death except after a hearing by a court of law.4 (4 It should be observed that throughout the treatise a ‘law-court’ [δικαστήριον] always means one of the large popular jury-courts …) Accordingly there was a trial in law-court, and Lysimachus was acquitted, receiving henceforth the nickname of ‘the man from the drum-head’; and the people deprived the Council thenceforward of the power to inflict death or imprisonment or fine, passing a law that if the Council condemn any person for an offence or inflict a fine, the Thesmothetae shall bring the sentence or fine before the law-court, and the decision of the jurors shall be the final judgment in the matter. The Council passes judgment on nearly all magistrates, especially those who have the control of money; its judgment, however, is not final, but is subject to an appeal in the law-courts. Private individuals, also, may impeach any magistrate they please for not obeying the laws, but here too there is an appeal to the law-courts if the Council declare the charge proved. The Council also examines those who are to be its members for the ensuing year, and also the nine Archons.1 (1 See ch. 55.) Formerly the Council had full power to reject candidates for office as unsuitable, but now these two have an appeal to the law-courts. In all these matters, therefore, the Council has no final jurisdiction. It has, however, a preliminary consideration [i.e., a probouleutic role – RP] of all matters brought before the Assembly, and the Assembly cannot vote on any question unless it has first been considered by the

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