I have recently read The Republic by Cicero. He writes Scipio Africanus' arguement in favor of a Republic as being the best form of government. Its clear from Scipio that the Republic requires a balance of powers in order to avoid concentration of power and corruption. It seems to me that discussions on the Republic and the Empire seem to favor the Empire in terms of stability. It also seems to me that the people were in favor of Caesar becoming dictator.
Why did Cicero think the Senate should be given more power in order to end the crisis of the Roman Republic despite knowing how corrupt the Senators had become? Did the Consuls simply wield too much power and this was the only way he thought to balance the system?
Also can you recommend any book that is a pro-imperial counterpart to the Republic, thanks.
Where does Cicero suggest that the senate ought to be given more power? Who says? I don't think I've ever heard a scholar suggest that Cicero was of such an opinion. I'm not sure where in the Republic Cicero would be saying that. Starting at 1.54 Scipio famously says that monarchy is the best form of government. Surely Cicero didn't think that, and there's no reason to think that he did. Scipio is Cicero's character in a Platonic dialogue, not a representation of precisely what Cicero thinks. This is a common feature of Platonic dialectic, that the philosopher's own opinion is never directly stated and it is left to the reader to evaluate the arguments himself.
As an aside, if you're interested in Cicero's thoughts on the reformation of the state the better text is the de Legibus. The de Re Publica merely purports to describe the state as it is (though notoriously it's a bit hard to see how exactly it can be said to do so), whereas the de Legibus is a much more systematic treatise on what laws an ideal state would have. As in the de Re Publica, the characters of the de Legibus are not necessarily Cicero himself speaking his precise opinion to us, even considering that one of the speaking characters is Cicero himself! For example, Cicero's brother Quintus is presented as this arch-oligarch who is vehemently opposed to giving any rights to the people, even suggesting such outrageous notions as abolishing the tribunate entirely. There's no reason to think that Quintus necessarily thought anything of the kind, and Cicero uses his character merely as a sort of strawman whose ideas he breaks apart systematically in order to construct new propositions.