The Constitutional Debate: Herodotus' Exploration of Good Government

Abstract

Herodotus’ Constitutional Debate is an important contribution to the development of political thought, since Herodotus provides in it definitions of the three forms of government, democracy, oligarchy, and monarchy. Yet the narrative context of the debate, as well as the Histories entire, often undermines these descriptions. In this article, I attempt to show how Herodotus focuses much more on the pragmatic goals of government—accountability, good decision-making, and stability—than on pure constitutional forms, and such a pragmatic focus suggests that Herodotus may be an early proponent of a ‘mixed’ constitution.