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The political system of Republic Rome
Democracy in ancient rome
The political system of Republic Rome
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A democracy is a system in which the people have all the power who rule through freely elected representatives or directly. A community that was a great example of a democracy, was the Roman Republic. The Roman Republic had great qualities of government, elections, and legislation in their democracy. They did have the right layout and standards of a democracy, but it needed to improve in their voting structure.
Roman Republic's government consisted of three main elements that had independent powers; the consuls, senate, and assemblies. The consuls, or magistrates, lead the military and are the government’s supreme masters, and they brought situations that regarded debates to the senate. The senate, proposed laws and has full control over the
treasury;however, the assemblies are the ones who deal with the actual elections that deal with the laws. The assemblies deal with that type of situation, alo are the people who grant office to those that deserve to go through elections, and decide whether to pass or repeal laws. Additionally, the assemblies do the legislation, which was one of the strongest reasons that their community was a democracy. Although Roman Republic has a good constitutional system and had the correct form of legislation, their major downfall was in their voting system. Only 2% of citizens voted during elections, and that 2% was a majority of males. On top of that, free slaves got to vote before woman, and they were not allowed to vote for certain candidates to be in elections; the candidates were chosen for them. Roman Republic had the correct viewpoints of democracy, and their government was exceptional with its three elements and their legislating network. The only downfall of the Roman Republic was that the voting system needed significant improvement with how they chose to vote and who they chose to elect. This complication, in the long run, made their democracy fairly democratic.
The roman republic constitution was a set of guidelines and principles passed down through precedent, the roman republic instead of creating a democracy such as that the Athenians created, a monarchy which was previously being used by previous roman rulers and an aristocracy which Sparta used, the Constitution combined elements of all three of these governments to create a combined government known as “Senatus populusque que romanus” (S.P.Q.R) this meant “the senate and the roman people”. The Roman magistrates were elected officials during the period of the Roman kingdom, the ‘king’ (although the Romans preferred not to be called a king and instead a rex) of Rome was the principal executive magistrate, his power was absolute similar to that of a tsar
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary Democracy is a form of government by the people; especially: rule of the majority(Webster). This is what the United States is represented as, and this is based on the United States Constitution from which the United states draws all legal powers. In Robert Dahls book How democratic Is the American Constitution? He challenges this idea by trying to appeal to his readers in a way that they may view the United States Constitution in a different light. Dahl does this by pointing out flaws that the Constitution has and, draws on facts based on the other democracies around the world that the United States is compared too. He points out how many democratic ideas and innovations have a occurred since the conception of the American Constitution yet it has only adopted some of those idea.
Democracy is the structure of government still used today in many countries.The definition of democracy is a system of government where people who rule directly are freely elected representatives.In addition, democracy comes from the Greek word demokratia. Demo meaning people and kratia meaning power of rule. For instance, here is an example, Great Britain has a democratic government since elected officials and laws are voted on by the people and also the representatives they elect. Therefore Athens exemplifies a democratic government. “Athenians would meet and vote on a simple question …. is anyone becoming a threat to democracy? If a simple majority voted yes,then they dispersed and reassembled two months later,
The Roman Republic, was a government, governed by an intricate constitution, which was based on the idea of separation of powers. The Roman Republic, began in 509 B.C, after the end of the Roman Monarchy and lasted for over 450 years. The constitution of the Roman Republic was highly influenced by the struggle of power between the rich families, the patricians, and other Romans who were not from famous or rich families, the plebeians. Their government was divided into three main sections, very much like the Legislative Branch, Executive, Branch, and Judicial Branch. Nowadays, the Senate and assembly resemble the Legislative Branch. In the Roman Republic, the Senate was the most powerful group. The Senate passed all laws and collected taxes. The second part of this branch, was the assembly, and the assembly was elected by the Romans from the plebeian class. The assembly elected consuls, tribunes (representatives from the plebeian class), and made laws. All members of the Senate were part of the patrician class and at the head of the Senate were two consuls. The Consuls controlled the Roman army and in order to become a consul, you had to be elected by a majority of all the citizens in Rome. The consuls, are like our president and the Executive Branch. Although the method of separation of powers came from the Roman Republic, that is not all that came from the Roman Republic that became part of the United States...
Over the span of five-hundred years, the Roman Republic grew to be the most dominant force in the early Western world. As the Republic continued to grow around the year 47 B.C it began to go through some changes with the rise of Julius Caesar and the degeneration of the first triumvirate. Caesar sought to bring Rome to an even greater glory but many in the Senate believed that he had abused his power, viewing his rule more as a dictatorship. The Senate desired that Rome continued to run as a republic. Though Rome continued to be glorified, the rule of Caesar Octavian Augustus finally converted Rome to an Empire after many years of civil war. Examining a few selections from a few ancient authors, insight is provided as to how the republic fell and what the result was because of this.
Between the years 509-27 BCE, Rome was considered a republic, which is a type of government in which people vote for representatives to make laws. People were classified as either patricians, plebeians, or slaves within the republic. The patricians were people of the upper class; the ones with all the money. Plebeians were usually farmers, merchants, artisans, or traders and slaves were usually prisoners from the war. During the early Rome expansion, the government was composed of two consuls, the senate, and a dictator when needed. The consuls were responsible for supervising the government and commanding armies. In addition, the senate consisted of three hundred patricians that voted on laws. Lastly, if necessary, a dictator would step in at a time of war, and carry out decisions when there was not enough time to discuss other options within the government . Based on the mentioned information, many people argue about how democratic the Roman Republic really was. The Roman Republic was primarily democratic, however, there were some aspects that could label it as an aristocracy.
This new Republican government, which was administered by the consuls, was not the easiest to transform. Because of the expansion in Italy, the government began to initiate political institutions. These institutions enforced laws and provided authority which were very similar to imperium. “The Romans had a clear concept of executive authority, embodied in their word imperium, or “the right to command” (Spielvogel 117). Since the Romans were very sensible in their actions, they made and implemented them only as needed. The most essential positions held were the few elected magistrates and the two consuls who were “chosen annually, administered the government and led the Roman army into battle” (Spielvogel 117). If the consul was otherwise occupied, either a dictator or praetor would assume responsibility for the time being.
The Roman Republic was very well structured and much better than being ruled by kings. Instead of being ruled by one king, the senate led the Roman government. The Roman senate was divided into five classes: the consuls, the censors, praetors, queastors, and tribunes. The leaders of the senate were two consuls, and they held most of the power. They were elected together annually.
What is democracy? Democracy is a form of government in which the power is vested in the people. What exactly does that mean? It means that the people have the power to vote government officials into office; it means that the majority rules; it means that everyone is entitled to freedom and equality. Although many people would agree that democracy is the greatest concept man ever created, the sad truth is that democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government because of the inevitable cycle that, for the most part, always results in tyranny.
A memorable expression said by President Abraham Lincoln reads, “Democracy is government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Democracy, is a derived from the Greek term "demos" which means people. It is a successful, system of government that vests power to the public or majority. Adopted by the United States in 1776, a democratic government has six basic characteristics: (i) established/elected sovereignty (where power and civic responsibility are exercised either directly by the public or their freely agreed elected representative(s)), (ii) majority rule(vs minority), (iii) (protects one’s own and reside with) human rights, (iv) regular free and fair elections to citizens (upon a certain age), (v) responsibility of
According to Polybius, who wrote a description of the Roman constitution, the Assemblies, which consisted of male plebeians and patricians, voted or repealed laws proposed by the Senate. This obviously gave a large portion of the government power to the people, and the Assemblies decided what was legal and what was not Besides lawmaking, citizens had one of the greatest and most important powers, and that was to decide whether to have peace or
In fact, the Romans created a form of government called a Republic, upon which the U.S. government is structured. In this republic government that the Romans created, the people elected officials to represent their interests and make decisions on their behalf. This government was divided into three branches: a legislative branch, an executive branch, and a judicial branch. The legislative branch was the Roman Senate which was made up of members of the wealthy patrician class. The executive branch consisted of two magistrates (consuls), both of whom had equivalent powers and could veto the other’s rulings or decisions.
Democracy is defined as a government system where the power and authority is vested in the eligible members of a state. Citizens meet to discuss policies and they make their final decisions by the majority rule. It is said to practice social equality and it focuses on the decisions made by the majority of the citizens in a certain country/city. In this specific system of government, all the citizens participate actively in the process of governing. The first form of democracy occurred in Athens — a city state located in Ancient Greece.
There are different interpretations of democracy, but the following describe four basic elements that should be present in the practice of democracy. Democracy is “a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections. The active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life. Protection of the human rights of all citizens. A rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens.”
What is democracy? Democracy a form of government in which the people freely elect representatives to govern them in a country, democracy guarantees free and fair elections, basic personal and political rights and independent court of law. There are two types of democracy, direct and indirect democracy. Direct democracy or pure democracy is where there is direct participate of the people; people make decisions for them instead of letting them representative make decision for them. Indirect democracy the decisions are made by the representative on behalf of the people that voted for them. All over the world people are having different views with regard to democracy and how it operates. “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried” ~ Winston Churchill, some have said democracy is the worst government form of government which I also think it’s! Due to the how it operates.