The ideas that formed the Constitution: James Harrington and Algernon Sidney
In the 17th century, England, which always had been a monarchy, flirted with republicanism. From 1649 to 1660, England actually was a republic, at least in theory: King Charles I had been executed, and the country became a “Protectorate” under Oliver Cromwell. Not...
The ideas that formed the Constitution: Machiavelli
A span of over a thousand years separates our last writer, the Roman historian Tacitus (who died about 120 C.E.), from Niccolò Machiavelli. You might wonder: Was there no one during that time period worth covering? And, why Machiavelli? Wasn’t he an exponent of the...
The ideas that formed the Constitution: Tacitus
The authors discussed in this series impacted the Constitution both directly and indirectly. Citations to the authors by participants in the constitutional debates of 1787–1790 are evidence of direct influence. Indirect influence occurred in at least two ways. First,...