Реферат: Democracy Essay Research Paper DemocracyI

Rome, around 500 BC, became a republic. A republic is not a democracy,

but is very similar to a democracy. In this republic, the elected officials only

represented a small fraction of the people. Some of the ideas Rome used, mainly

the practice of elected officials helped to shape the ideas of a representative

democracy.

In Rome, the wealthy people, the patricians, had much more power then the

poorer people, the plebeians. Despite the fact that the plebeians had very little

power, the fact that they had any power at all was a step foreword for democracy.

As a part of Romes government, there was a senate and two assemblies. The

senate, made up of senators, proposed laws and ratified treaties. The Assembly of

Centuries directed military members, and the Assembly of Tribes represented all of

the people. In theory the assembly would be made up of both plebeians and

patricians. However it was proved that the patricians were very adept at controlling

the plebeians and thus held all the power at the assemblies. Despite the fact that the

Roman people had overthrown the king, they still felt the need for supreme

leadership. Because they felt they needed a powerful leader they decided to

appoint consuls, a pair of officials who carried out Romes laws. The consuls ruled

for one year, commanded their own army, and had the power to veto any of the

other consuls decisions. Another thing the Romans did was make it so a dictator

could rule for a six-month period of time so quick decisions could be made in a

crisis. The dictator, although he could make decisions, he could not change the

base laws for the country.

In the middle ages Christianity tought people that they not only were

citizens of the earth, but they were also members of Gods kingdom. Since people

were tought that they were citizens of both, nobody could be expected to be totally

loyal to their country and be totally loyal to their religion. During the middle ages,

in most of Europe, people lived under a feudal system. Under feudalism, people

pledged their skils and loyalty to other people in exchange for land, food, and

protection. Another idea feudalism supported was that individuals had certain