James Harrington

James Harrington (1611 to 1677) was an English political theorist who contributed to classical republican thought. He was born in Northamptonshire, studied briefly at Trinity College, Oxford, and entered the Middle Temple. His best known work, The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656), set out an ideal republican constitution based on Aristotle and meant as a model for the English Commonwealth that followed the execution of Charles I. He argued that political stability rests on the distribution of landed property, favouring an aristocracy of limited powers, a strong middle class and a separation of economic and political power. Oliver Cromwell reacted unfavourably, and after the Restoration Harrington was imprisoned. His ideas influenced classical republicanism in the United States, including the Articles of Confederation and the agrarian democracy of Thomas Jefferson.