Republic of Ragusa - Government

Government

The Republican Constitution of Ragusa was strictly aristocratic. The population was divided into three classes: nobility, citizens, and artisans or plebeians. All effective power was concentrated in the hands of aristocracy. The citizens were permitted to hold only minor offices, while plebeians had no voice in government. Marriage between members of different classes of the society was forbidden.

The organization of the government was based on the Venetian model: the administrative bodies were the Grand Council (supreme governing body) and the Small Council (executive power) (from 1238) and the Senate (from 1253). The head of the state was the Rector, elected for a term of office for one month.

The Grand Council (Consilium maius) consisted only of members of the aristocracy; every noble took his seat at the age of 18. Every year, 11 members of the Small Council (Consilium minus) were elected. Together with a duke, the Small Council had both executive and representative functions. The main power was in the hands of the Senate (Consilium rogatorum), which had 45 members elected for one year. This organization was designed to prevent any single family, such as the Medici in Florence, from gaining absolute control. Nevertheless, historians agree that the Sorgo family generally had the greatest influence.

The Small Council (Consilium minus) consisted first of 11 members, and after 1667 of seven. Members were elected by the Rector.

The Senate was added in 1235 as a consultative body. It consisted of 45 invited members, over 40 years of age. While the Republic was under the rule of Venice, the Rector was Venetian; but after 1358 the Rector was always a person from the Republic or Ragusa. The length of the Rector's service was only one month, and a person was eligible for reelection after two years. The rector lived and worked in the Rector's Palace, but his family remained living in their own house.

The government of the Republic was liberal in character and early showed its concern for justice and humanitarian principles. The Republic's flag had the word Libertas (freedom) on it, and the entrance to the Saint Lorenz fortress (Lovrijenac) just outside the Ragusa city walls bears the inscription Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro (Liberty can not be sold for all the gold of the world). The Republic imposed some restrictions on the slave trade in 1416. The Republic was also a staunch opponent of the Eastern Orthodox Church and only Roman Catholics could acquire Ragusan citizenship.

An inscription on the Council's offices read: Obliti privatorum publica curate (Manage the public affairs as if you had no private interests); in the nineteenth century, the undertones of this political epigraph must have struck the Austrian governors of Ragusa as potentially dangerous, for they had it removed. The new government was probably irritated by its air of republicanism, a reminder of the statehood that was to be extirpated in integrating Ragusa into a new Habsburg frame. As a pregnant expression of civic virtue and republican values, this political maxim has been frequently cited ever since. Scarcely can be found a popular text on the heritage of Ragusan statehood or the political history of the Republic, whether printed, online, or spoken, in which this motto does not appear.