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ABSTRACTThis article examines the important contributions to the scholarship of Benjamin Straumann’s Crisis and Constitutionalism: Roman Political Thought from the Fall of the Republic to the Age of Revolution. Straumann argues that Cicero elaborated a notion of constitutionalism that contains important proto-liberal ideas. In focusing so intently on tracing the appeal to natural rights in constitutional thinking, Straumann excludes from his analysis important reflections on the Roman constitution which do not rely on natural rights, but which still elaborate important and influential features of constitutionalism such as institutions and safeguards. Straumann’s narrow focus appears to induce him to reject the possibility that Machiavelli has anything worthwhile to contribute to an understanding of the Roman constitution and thus to miss the impact that the Florentine had on later thinkers in the very constitutional tradition that Straumann is so intent to highlight and explicate.

AbstractAlexander the Great and his legacy suffuse The Prince, a fact that has received little attention. Machiavelli uses Alexander to illustrate the form of rule in which one is lord and all others are slaves. In recounting the Roman Republic's conquest of Greece, Machiavelli treats Alexander's vanquished successors. Alexander's legacy enters Rome itself, igniting in Romans the desire to subject the world to sole preeminence. According to Machiavelli, Caesar imitated Alexander, and Caesar overturned the republic, initiating the rule of one in Rome. Caesar had his own Roman successors, the emperors who ruled under his name. Rome succeeded in imposing the rule of one on Europe. That form of rule exists in Machiavelli's times with the states of the Turk and the Sultan as well as with the papacy in a limited respect. Something of the old Rome and its Alexandrian aspirations persists in Christian Rome.

Provides some insights into how association executive directors may deliver an effective speech to his members. Enhancement of the impact of the speech by finding cost-effective ways to distribute taped copies; Cultivation and maintenance of ongoing connection with the audience.