IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/copoec/v32y2021i2d10.1007_s10602-021-09330-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The demise of the Roman Republic: a faulty constitution?

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Jankowski

    (SUNY at Fredonia)

Abstract

The Roman Republic was one of the earliest and long-lasting democracies (510-27 BCE). To prevent the creation of dictatorship, it had a system of separation of powers but it failed to protect the Roman Republic. The ultimate cause of the fall of the Roman Republic was due to the immense wealth that Rome accumulated from its empire and the impact this wealth had on Rome’s institutions, especially its generals. Cicero proposed constitutional reforms to prevent its demise. His reforms were unnecessary because the Roman Senate already had the constitutional authority to prevent its demise. The problem was that Senators lacked an incentive to use their constitutional authority to save Rome’s democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Jankowski, 2021. "The demise of the Roman Republic: a faulty constitution?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 218-232, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:copoec:v:32:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s10602-021-09330-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10602-021-09330-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10602-021-09330-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10602-021-09330-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew M. Warner, 1995. "Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 5398, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Monson,Andrew & Scheidel,Walter (ed.), 2015. "Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107089204, October.
    3. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2001. "A Theory of Political Transitions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 938-963, September.
    4. Acemoglu,Daron & Robinson,James A., 2009. "Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521671422, October.
    5. North, Douglass C. & Weingast, Barry R., 1989. "Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 803-832, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Óscar Gutiérrez & Marco Martínez-Esteller, 2022. "Tax collection in the Roman Empire: a new institutional economics approach," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 378-401, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrea Asoni, 2008. "Protection Of Property Rights And Growth As Political Equilibria," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 953-987, December.
    2. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2008. "Persistence of Power, Elites, and Institutions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(1), pages 267-293, March.
    3. Baland, Jean-Marie & Moene, Karl Ove & Robinson, James A., 2010. "Governance and Development," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4597-4656, Elsevier.
    4. David Wiens, 2015. "Natural resources and government responsiveness," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 14(1), pages 84-105, February.
    5. Robert K. Fleck & F. Andrew Hanssen, 2018. "Path dependence and transitions from tyranny to democracy: evidence from ancient Greece," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 371-388, December.
    6. Cockx, Lara & Francken, Nathalie, 2014. "Extending the concept of the resource curse: Natural resources and public spending on health," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 136-149.
    7. Ivar Kolstad & Arne Wiig, 2014. "Diversification and democracy," CMI Working Papers 9, CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute), Bergen, Norway.
    8. Ghosal, Sayantan & Proto, Eugenio, 2009. "Democracy, collective action and intra-elite conflict," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(9-10), pages 1078-1089, October.
    9. Mulligan, Casey B. & Tsui, Kevin K., 2015. "Political entry, public policies, and the economy," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 377-397.
    10. Bart Capéau & Philip Verwimp, 2012. "Dictatorship in a single export crop economy," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 24(2), pages 210-234, April.
    11. De Magalhaes, Leandro & Giovannoni, Francesco, 2022. "War and the rise of parliaments," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    12. Amy Pond, 2018. "Protecting Property: The Politics of Redistribution, Expropriation, and Market Openness," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 181-210, July.
    13. Wafa Ghardallou & Abdelkader Boudriga, 2014. "Financial Development and Democracy: is the Relationship Non-Linear?," Working Papers 886, Economic Research Forum, revised Dec 2014.
    14. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2016. "Religious Seduction in Autocracy: A Theory Inspired by History," CEPR Discussion Papers 11258, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Ennio E. Piano, 2019. "State capacity and public choice: a critical survey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 289-309, January.
    16. Verdier, Thierry & Acemoglu, Daron & Robinson, James A., 2003. "Kleptocracy and Divide-and-Rule: A Model of Personal Rule," CEPR Discussion Papers 4059, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Anne Meng, 2019. "Accessing the state: Executive constraints and credible commitment in dictatorship," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 31(4), pages 568-599, October.
    18. Lagerlöf Nils-Petter, 2012. "A Dynamic Theory of Competence, Loyalty and Stability in Dictatorships," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-39, March.
    19. John Turner & Wenwen Zhan, 2012. "Property rights and competing for the affections of Demos: the impact of the 1867 Reform Act on stock prices," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 609-631, March.
    20. Laura Policardo & Edgar J. Sanchez Carrera, 2020. "Can income inequality promote democratization?," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(3), pages 510-532, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:copoec:v:32:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s10602-021-09330-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.