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The Romans added representative democracy in which the electors chose representatives (tribunes, consuls and the like) but were not permitted to participate directly in government. This is called a Republic, and is not a full Democracy.

Along with the process for electing representatives they also introduced methods for campaigning and electioneering such as promising social welfare in return for being elected. This led to Cicero's complaint that politics was all about "bread and circuses", the free food and free entertainment that politicians offered. To pay for this they exploited people who could not vote, mostly in the poorer colonies, taking grain and slaves and victims with which to bribe the electors in Rome. While the concept of republics is that the government exists and functions for the good of the people, in practice the Roman Republic became very corrupt.

By developing democratic election of representatives and by not valuing liberal education like the Greeks had, the Romans undermined democracy and introduced forms of corruption that republics continue to experience today.

Nonetheless many modern state fathers have looked to Rome for the good ideals that the Roman Republic originally stood for, and hence set up systems that have largely developed the same defects that the Roman Republic suffered from.

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13y ago

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