Who gave us democracy?
Did the Romans or did the Greeks give us democracy, or ideas for a democratic society? We will never know who exactly started the governmental style that we have today. The Romans gave societies many great ideas for democracy, such as veto power, checks and balances, laws for society and budget control. Many historians currently believe that the ideals used in the United States government will cause a governmental collapse. So far, our democracy has not collapsed, but thrived.
The Roman government was organized in the same manner as the United States. Each country having three branches of government, the judicial, legislative and congressional. The power to veto was created by the Roman Emperor Augustus in the year 449 BC. The Roman empire was ruled by the Tribunal of the Plebes. This group was originally created with only two Plebes. Once the power to veto, (ius intercessionis in Latin) was created, The Tribunal of Plebes grew to 10. Emperor Augustus wanted the power to cancel any legislation created by the group of Plebeians. This is the same power given to the President of the United States of America and to state Governors. This ability is wrote into the constitution. Through the power of the presidency, he/she can say no to bills that the majority of the people believe will have a bad repercussion in today’s society. These bills could affect how our government operates. For example, “Arizona's Legislature has passed a controversial bill that would allow business owners, as long as they assert their religious beliefs, to deny service to gay and lesbian customers.Jan Brewer, a Republican and one time small business owner who vetoed similar legislation last year, but has expressed the right of business owners to deny service.” (http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/21/us/arizona-anti-gay-bill/) Governor Jan Brewer, having veto power, gave her the right to veto bills such as the one stated above. Without this power, our society could be over run by laws, or place laws into effect that contradict each other. Another advantage to having veto power is to ensure a proper checks and balance system is in place and enforced. When a president enacts his/her veto power, the Congress can then overrule the veto with a ⅔ majority veto from Congress. It is the determination of the people to ensure those elected on their behalf are aware of how their Congressman and President should vote. Each branch of the government enacting on the behalf of the people.
What is the purpose of the checks and balance system? The checks and balance system is utilized to ensure that one area of the government doesn’t have more authority than another area of government. During the Roman Empire, their government consisted of two branches, the Tribunes and the Senate. In ancient Rome, laws were created by the Senate and then approved by the Tribunes, then sent to the assemblies to be implemented. This is similar to how the United States uses our checks and balance system. The Tribunes is similar to our legislature and the Senate is similar to our Congress. The assemblies are similar to our state level run government. In the American government, the legislature has power over judicial and executive branches. This power exists through their ability to confirm or reject members of the executive branch and supreme court judges. The executive branch has the power to veto, submit laws for consideration and nominate supreme court judges and officials for office. The judiciary's main purpose is to review all the laws being acted upon by the legislative and executive branches. For example, if a law passed by the congress and the president, the judicial could then review the law and establish its constitutionality. Through utilizing the Roman Empire’s checks and balance method of government, the United States has been the most uncorrupted government in the world. Even though checks and balance was in place, there were still obstacles