2020-3895-AJHA 1 Distribution of Powers and Functions in Collegium System of 2 Governance in the Ancient Roman Republic and the 1992 3 Constitutional Provisions of the Republic of Ghana 4 5 In ancient Rome, the term Collegiate (collegium) generally referred to corporations of 6 persons united by the performance of religious rites or by the practice of a common 7 profession, be it politicians, businessmen, and the likes. In the era of the Roman 8 Empire, the collegia functioned only with government authorization. The Roman 9 policy of Collegiality – having dual members to serve in the same post to insure the 10 checks on power balance – has found its way into the constitutional governance of the 11 Republic of Ghana. Thus, the policy of having even numbers (two, eight, and sixteen 12 as in the case of praetors) of members in the same post is not lost to contemporary 13 political considerations. With the method of thematic and content analysis of the 1992 14 Constitution of Ghana and drawing comparisons and reflections of the Roman policy 15 of collegium, this article postulates that the policy of collegial governance is 16 verisimilitude in the constitutional provisions and governance of the Republic of 17 Ghana, and that, apart from few differences, the system of collegiality is still in use in 18 modern democratic governance. 19 20 Keywords: Distribution of Powers and Functions, Collegium System of Governance, 21 the Roman Republic, 1992 Constitutional Provisions, the Republic of Ghana 22 23 24 Introduction 25 26 One of the issues that make the study of ancient Roman civilization 27 interesting has to do with the method of governance. The Roman political 28 practices are too broad and complex to behold at a glance. However, by 29 focusing on some aspects of the whole set of their governance practices, one 30 can decode the complexities associated with and arrive at a logical 31 understanding as to why the Romans embarked on some policies of 32 governance. One of the aspects this article focuses on is the Roman policy of 33 collegiality. For this reason, the article examines the Roman political practice 34 of collegiality and shows its reflections in the democratic dispensation of the 35 Republic of Ghana. The focus of the discussion will be on the Roman 36 magistrates and their compositions, functions, and how within the various 37 magistracies, college (or colleague) members interacted with each other to 38 achieve the same goals in shaping the constitutional governance of Rome. In 39 the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, the areas that I will draw 40 comparisons or juxtaposition will include but not limited to the Executive arm 41 of government (the President and the Vice-President and Cabinet ministers); 42 the Parliament; Parliamentary Select Committees; the National Media 43 Commission; and the Electoral Commission. 44 45 46 1 2020-3895-AJHA 1 Methodology 2 3 The methods employed for this study have been content, thematic, and 4 comparative analysis. According to Palmquist (1990), content analysis is a 5 study instrument used to determine the occurrence of certain words or concepts 6 within texts or sets of texts, from business to political science.1 Content 7 analysis has been used to detect the existence of propaganda (publicity) of the 8 term collegium, identify the intentions for collegium governance, groups or 9 institutions the concept is applied, and determine the psychological or 10 emotional state of persons or institutions involved so far as power distributions 11 are concerned.2 12 Thus, I have used content analysis to identify the intentions of the 13 introduction of the policy of Collegium and how the policy is repeated or used 14 in modern constitutional practices of the Republic of Ghana. The method is 15 also used to analyze the presence, meanings, and relationships of such term – 16 collegium, collegial, colleagues collegia, college, collegiality, equality – in 17 ancient Rome by making inferences about the functional roles through content 18 analysis’ basic methods such as conceptual analysis (by tracing the existence 19 of the concepts in Roman political institutions), and relational analysis (by 20 examining the relationships of the usage and application of the terms among 21 other concepts in the constitution of Ghana).3 Thus, with these two methods 22 within the content analysis, I have been able to conceptualize the functional or 23 purposeful meaning of the term collegium by relating to other institutional 24 establishments in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. 25 The thematic analytic method has also been used since it helped to 26 identifying, analyzing, and reporting key emerging patterns within the Roman 27 political practices and the constitution of Ghana so far as themes or terms such 28 as equality, fairness, justice, transparency, checks, and balances are 29 concerned.4 Thematic analysis was useful for this study because, with the 30 technique of interpretation, analysis, and comparison, I have simplified the 1J. Beard, and A. Yaprak, “Language Implications for Advertising in International Markets: A Model for Message Content and Message Execution,” (Ann Arbor, MI., 1989); B. Berelson, Content Analysis in Communication Research, (New York: Hafner Publishing Company, 1971); WCE, An Introduction to Content Analysis, (N.p., 2004). 2B. Berelson, Content Analysis in Communication Research, (New York: Hafner Publishing Company, 1971); R. W. Budd, R. K.Thorp, and L. Donohew, Content Analysis of Communications (New York: Macmillan Company, 1967); T. F. Carney, Content Analysis: A Technique for Systematic Inference from Communications, (Winnipeg, Canada: University of Manitoba Press, 1972). 3K. Carley, “Content analysis.” In R.E. Asher (Ed.). The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, (Edinburgh: Pergamon Press, 1990); I. de Sola Pool, Trends in Content Analysis, (Urbana, Ill: University of Illinois Press, 1959); M. E. Palmquist, The Lexicon of the Classroom: Language and Learning in Writing Class Rooms, (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 1990); writing.colostate.edu (WCE), An Introduction to Content Analysis, (N.p., 2004); R. P. Weber, Basic Content Analysis, Second Edition. (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1990). 4M. I. Alhojailan, “Thematic analysis: A critical review of its process and evaluation,” West East Journal of Social Sciences, 1(1) (N.p, 2012), 39-47. 2 2020-3895-AJHA 1 application of the terms colleagues, college, and collegiality to mean one thing 2 – equality – within the Roman and Ghanaian context.5 By so doing, the 3 contributions that the literature provides, challenges, similarities, and 4 dissimilarities of the application of the concept collegium have been the main 5 focus of the study without extensive digressions. 6 7 8 Conceptual Clarification of Collegium (Collegiate) 9 10 In ancient Rome, the term Collegiate (collegium) generally referred to 11 corporations of persons united by the performance of religious rites or by the 12 practice of a common profession, be it politicians, businessmen, and the likes. 13 Stated differently, collegia (college) or collegium (collegiate), in ancient Rome, 14 were of various types including religious, priestly (such as the Pontifices, 15 Augures, Fetiales, and Salii), trade, veteran, and funeral collegia.6 From the 16 first century B.C., the collegia, and particularly the trade collegia and 17 neighborhood collegia, uniting freedmen and slaves interfered in political life; 18 this led to their periodic ban (for example, after the First Catilinarian 19 Conspiracy in 66 B.C.).7 20 However, in the era of the Roman Empire, the collegia functioned only 21 with government authorization. Paul A. Bishop in his Rome: Transition to 22 Empire, defines ‘Collegiality’ in this period as the Roman policy of having 23 dual members serve in the same post to insure the check on power balance. For 24 the Romans, the term collegium could also mean having even numbers (two, 25 eight, and sixteen as in the case of praetors) of members in the same post. The 26 main idea for the introduction of such policy and the term was to make sure 27 that over-ambitious elected political figures do not abuse their powers. In this 28 paper, I have used the terms collegium, collegia, college, collegiality, collegial, 29 and colleagues interchangeably to mean the same thing – members of equal 30 position, functions, and responsibility. 31 5V. Braun, and V. Clarke, “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology.” Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (N.p, 2006), 77-101; M. Maguire, and B. Delahunt, “Doing a Thematic Analysis: A Practical, Step-by-Step Guide for Learning and Teaching Scholars.” All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (AISHE-J), 8 (3. (N.p., 2017), 3351- 33514. 6E. M. Shtaerman, “Rabskie kollegii i familii v period imperii.” Vestnik drevnei istorii, 3 (1950); M. Lorenzen, “Collegiality and the Academic Library.” E-JASL: The Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship 7, 2 (2006). 7Marcus Tullius Cicero, The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, trans. C. D. Yonge, and Henry B. Bohn, (1856); H. H. Scullard, and M. Cary, A history of Rome down to the reign of Constantine, 3rd edit (Hong Kong: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1979). 3 2020-3895-AJHA 1 The Practice of Collegium within Rome’s Established Institutions, and Functions 2 3 Within the Roman political practices, collegium was the practice of having 4 at least two people, and always an even number, in each magistrate position of 5 the Roman Senate. Reasons were to divide power and responsibilities among 6 several people, both to prevent the rise of another king after the overthrow of 7 the last Roman king, Lucius Tarquinius, in about 509 BC by the Roman 8 nobility,8 and to ensure more productive, responsible, and accountable 9 magistrates. Examples and areas of the Roman political practice of collegiality 10 are seen in the office of the consuls; praetors; tribunes; aediles; quaestors; 11 censors; and the Senate itself.