User:Sol Pacificus/Notes – Italian republics

Magistrate: any of the highest offices of government, not as in a judicial officer as some modern governments like to use it
Lot: drawing a name at random out of a bag.

Republic of Florence

Two factions:

• Ottimati: the aristocrats
• Popolani: the lower-class, including merchants, artisans, and shopkeepers

The Ottimati Guiciardini argued that a republic is defined by:

(a) Equality before the law of all citizens.

(b) Equal access to public office.

But he ranked (a) above (b). He favoured election over lot because "they select the best while still leaving up to the people to discern who are the best". He argued:

• Governance should not be left at random to individuals who might be only adequate at the job.
• That elections apparently tended to preserve public office for the elite was not a problem; this only meant the people judged these elite to be meritorious.
• It is not for individuals to decide for themselves if they think they Re deserving of office. The people have the best judgement.
• Was he only able to use this line of argument because it happened to favour elite interests?

First republic system (1328–1494)

Procedure

1. Nominatori (preselection committee) nominates candidates for magistracies from among all Florentine citizens (i.e. tax-paying adult men)

• The Florentine aristocracy controlled who got to be members of the nominatori.

2. Candidates are "scrutinized" (squittino), i.e. approved or rejected by a second committee, the arrotti.

• The arrotti are elected by a group of Florentine citizens. This group of Florentine citizens are themselves chosen by lot.

3. Magistrates are selected by lot from among the candidates who passed the scrutiny.

Second republic system (1494–1512, 1537–1530)

A Great Council was established. It was composed of:

• Citizens who had either had passed the scrutiny the three most prestigious magistracies. (i.e. the Signoria, the 12 Buoni Huomini, the 16 Gonfalonieri)
• Citizens whose fathers or grandfathers had passed the scrutiny for any of these three offices.
• Citizens elected by the Great Council every 3 years. Candidates had to be taxpaying men who held some office in the past.
• c. 1500, the Great Council had 3000 members out of a population of 70,000 (including women and children).

Both the Ottimati and the popolani wanted to reform the system to favour themselves, but ironically, neither could figure out what combination of lot and election would help them.

• The Ottimati first favoured lot because they thought elections would favour the Medici, then changed their position to elections.
• The Popolani initially favoured elections, then changed their position to lots.
• Girolamo Savonarola favoured elections and changed the membership of the Signoria to be elected rather than chosen by lot.

Procedure

1. Nominatori nominates candidates for magistracies from among all Florentine citizens.

• The nominatori are chosen by lot from among the members of the Great Council.

2. Candidates are "scrutinized" (squittino), i.e. approved or rejected by a second committee, the arrotti.

• The arrotti are elected by a group of Florentine citizens. This group of Florentine citizens are themselves chosen by lot.

3. Magistrates are selected by lot from among the candidates who passed the scrutiny.

Republic of Venice

Procedure

1. The nominatori nominates candidates for most offices.*

• The nominatori are chosen by lot.

2. The Great Council elects by secret ballot magistrates from among these candidates immediately after the candidates are announced, to allow no time for either campaigning or political maneuvers.

• Membership in the Great Council is itself hereditary, based on the descendants of members elected at the time of the Serrata, the "closing' of the Council, in 1297. Nobility = member of the Great Council.
• Only members of the Great Council were citizens to begin with? But Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that Venice was not a true aristocracy because The the nobles themselves were synonymous with the people because even many of these nobles of the Great Council had empty power. Most of them never were able to attain office because even a narrower elite circulated magistracies among each other—all without a tampering of the electoral process.
• Venice had a reputation in its heyday as the paradigm of elective government, in contrast to Florence who used lot in the final selection of leaders, but its elections only ever produced the same elites in power.