Mixed government, also known as a mixed constitution, is a form of government that integrates elements of democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. In a mixed government, some issues (often defined in a constitution) are decided by the majority of the people, some other issues by few, and some other issues by a single person (also often defined in a constitution). The idea is commonly treated as an antecedent of separation of powers.

Plato in his book The Republic divided governments into five basic types (Four being existing forms and one being Plato's ideal form, which exists "only in speech"):

He found flaws with all existing forms of government and thus concluded that aristocracy, which emphasizes virtue and wisdom, is the purest form of government. Aristotle largely embraced Plato's ideas and in his Politics three types (excluding timocracy) are discussed in detail. Aristotle considers constitutional government (a combination of oligarchy and democracy under law) the ideal form of government, but he observes that none of the three are healthy and that states will cycle between the three forms in an abrupt and chaotic process known as the kyklos. In his Politics he lists a number of theories of how to create a stable government. One of these options is creating a government that is a mix of all three forms of government.

Gene Epstein, an Austrian Economist, is Barron's economics editor and writes the column Economic Beat.

Earning a BA from Brandeis University and MA in economics from the New School, Gene Epstein taught economics at St. John’s University and the City University of New York, publishing Making Money in Commodities (1976). Gene Epstein went on to work as a senior economist for the New York Stock Exchange and with co-author William C. Freund published People and Productivity: The New York Stock Exchange Guide to Financial Incentives and the Quality of Work Life in 1984.

In 1993 he became Barron's economics editor and columnist of Economic Beat. Since writing Econospinning (2006) Gene Epstein is a frequent speaker on the conference circuit and has appeared on NPR, CNBC, CNN, Fox, and BBC TV.

Published in 2006, Gene Epstein critiques the media’s handling of economic news, detailing the errors of such politically divergent groups as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, and the Economist. Paul Krugman, Lou Dobbs, Brad DeLong, and Freakonomics writers Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner are among some of the individuals singled out in Econospinning.

Murray Newton Rothbard (March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist, historian, and political theorist. He was a prominent exponent of the Austrian School of economics who helped to define libertarianism by theorising a form of free-market anarchism which he termed "anarcho-capitalism." Rothbard wrote over twenty books and is considered a centrally important figure in the American libertarian movement.

Building on the Austrian School's concept of spontaneous order, support for a free market in money production and condemnation of central planning, Rothbard advocated abolition of coercive government control of society and the economy. He considered the monopoly force of government the greatest danger to liberty and the long-term well-being of the populace, labeling the state as nothing but a "gang of thieves writ large"—the locus of the most immoral, grasping and unscrupulous individuals in any society.

Rothbard concluded that all services provided by monopoly governments could be provided more efficiently by the private sector. He viewed many regulations and laws ostensibly promulgated for the "public interest" as self-interested power grabs by scheming government bureaucrats engaging in dangerously unfettered self-aggrandizement, as they were not subject to market disciplines. Rothbard held that there were inefficiencies involved with government services and asserted that market disciplines would eliminate them, if the services could be provided by competition in the private sector.