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.

(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 are 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)

Electoral system

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.

Electoral system

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

The Doge was the head of state.

The Great Council was the general assembly and a successor of the earlier popular assembly, the Concio.

• Originally its membership was more open to free citizens, but local elite anxieties over the inclusion of the nouveau riche, foreign immigrants, and returning Venetian expats led to the Serrata, or "closing" of the Great Council, in 1297. The Great Council was then expanded to include some local established Venetian families of more common origins and returning Venetians—doubling in size—before its membership became permanently hereditary. Henceforth, the members of the Great Council became the Venetian nobility.
• An unusual social stratification of this nobility developed over time, with some becoming poor (called the Barnabotti) and never getting the real chance to become magistrates, all while legally retaining their hereditary status on the Great Council. Instead, a narrower elite group of Great Councilors continuously circulated the magistracies among themselves.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that Venice never had a true aristocracy because the nobility themselves were of the people, i.e. the "nobility" of Venice were somewhat synonymous with its citizenry.

Electoral system

Magistrates

1. The nominatori nominates candidates for most offices.*

• The nominatori are chosen by lot from among Venetian citizens.

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.

• 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.

Sources

• The Principles of Representative Government (1997) by Bernard Manin