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How Democratic Was Rome Essay

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A common argument right now is “How democratic was Rome?”. This ravages our minds while we try to figure it out. But some people, like Polybius, may be able to help answer this question. Rome was a place where people had a lot of power. Some people may argue that there were many people who had much more power in Rome, and that may be true, but the people still had an abundance of power. Rome also had their own constitution. The three parts of the constitution were The Consuls, The Senate, and The Assemblies. These were the only higher powers in Rome, but they did not have an extremely large amount of power. Rome was very democratic because people could legislate, people could vote, and there weren’t too many higher powers. One of the powers people had was that they could legislate. Legislation helped Rome be a very democratic, because it gave people a little more power. Legislation was where they could help create the laws. “The most fundamental of all the rights of the people was, however, the fact that they, and they alone, could legislate.” This already clearly shows how much power the people had in Rome. So, this proves that people can have much power, which would make Rome a democracy. …show more content…

Voting was a very powerful thing. It meant that the people could decide what happens in the area. This could include who gets spots in what, what laws are passed, etc. Also, almost everybody had a vote. “Every adult male citizen, unless specifically disqualified, had a vote, and there was no formal exclusion of the poor. Free slaves could also vote….” This is significant because it gave people even more rights and power. There were also only a few people who could not vote, like women, and disqualified people. This all states that people had an abundancy of power, and that majorly supports that Rome was a

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