reading response 3

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Pennsylvania State University *

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101

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Political Science

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Oct 30, 2023

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docx

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1) Based on your reading of pages 260-263, discuss the functions of voting assemblies in the Roman Republic. How "democratic" were these assemblies? The Voting Assemblies during the Roman Republic were meant to hold elections, approve laws, and oversee actionable decisions. In many circumstances, the economy and business of the Roman Republic could not be functional without the guidance and signoff of the “comitia”. In this sense, the assemblies appear democratic as “all” citizens have a chance to contribute to decisions that may impact their lives. Although the framework of these assemblies was reasonably democratic, certain aspects and requirements lacked principles of equality that we associate with democracy in the modern world. For example, women were completely excluded from the voting process and could not hold office. Eventually when women did gain some influence in politics, it was done covertly and not in a public forum. It can be assumed that slaves were also not included in voting. Exclusion of these groups of people represent one way in which the voting assemblies were not entirely democratic. As the author mentions, even among those who could vote, votes were not technically equal in these assemblies. There were three different kinds of assembly: comitia curiata, comitia centuriata, and comitia tributa. At one point, the compositions of the assemblies—specifically the comitia centuriata— was determined by the amount of property that men had. The author states that during this republic period, all of the richer, more powerful, and older men got placed in the same century assembly and were given “more centuries” while the property-less citizens were all placed in the same century assembly. Additionally, the wealthier citizens were able to vote first and because the result was declared as soon as a majority was reached, they could dictate outcomes of elections. The set up of these assemblies with their composition and voting timing is clearly designed to serve the wealthier citizens of the Roman Republic. Thus, these assemblies are further proven to be less than democratic. Although it may have seemed like lower class citizens had a say in their government, in reality, they did not and were not truly represented. Within the comitia tributa there was also some inequality. Italy was divided into around 241 “tribes”. However, of these 241, only four of them were for urban areas. As result, urban areas were almost gerrymandered and votes in those tribes were diluted by the “rustic” tribes. On a personal note, I find it fascinating and almost disappointingly humorous how these types of problems still persist thousands of years later. This issue is a final example of how these voting assemblies were really not very democratic. Despite this, there exists a basic structure of voting and choosing representatives that does demonstrate the framework of a democratic republic.

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