a key support that keeps the whole system functioning, a key check or balance that keeps the system from collapsing?
How would we know the difference?
The American education system being what it is, many Americans no longer have any real knowledge of even who the Founding Fathers were, past perhaps George Washington. As for the problems of democracy they grappled with, and the reason for the system of checks and balances they created, they are so far removed that most don’t even realize there are problems with democracy.
But not to worry, if we ever do make a mistake; we have the ability to change the Constitution. Once the problem is realized; we can simply fix the problem and continue on. The error in such thinking can be seen in the following analogy.
A Stroll in the Desert
Imagine an intrepid but somewhat naive adventurer who is staying at a beautiful resort on the edge of a vast desert. In the distance he sees a hill and wonders what is on the other side. So our adventurer decides to hike out to the hill and see for himself.
After hiking for some time, he finally reaches the top of the hill. The view is gorgeous, well worth the hike. Off in the distance our adventurer sees another hill and instantly has the same question; what is beyond it? He is feeling pretty good, and while he didn’t think to bring any food or water, he is after all not only intrepid but naive, he tells himself that he can always turn back to the safety of the resort if he needs to. So he decides to press on.
Now from the moment our intrepid adventurer set out on his journey, the maximum distance he could travel before he died was both limited and yet unknown. It was limited because the human body has limits on how far it can go without food or water. Given that our intrepid adventurer is wandering through a desert, water will be the major issue.
Since the only water in our mythical desert is at our mythical resort, the distance our adventurer can travel is also limited. At some point his body will simply give out due to lack of water, and he will die.
Exactly how far he can go is unknown for a number of reasons. How fast he loses water will be determined by things such as the heat, and whether he runs, walks briskly, or walks slowly. But while unknown, there remains a limit to how far he can go. So with each step our intrepid adventurer takes, he comes closer to death.
Now early on this is hardly even worth thinking about. He is so close to the resort that he can easily make it back. But the more distance he walks away from the resort, the less of a safety margin he will have. If we assume that our adventurer always walks in a straight line, the point of no return is half the maximum distance he can travel. If he goes beyond the halfway point, then the resort will be too far away to reach and he will die before getting back.
The real problem however is that body functions do not decline in a linear or straight line fashion. The halfway point of our perceived energy is not the same as the halfway point of the distance we can travel. In short, our adventurer can cover ground much faster when he starts his trek across the desert, than at the end when he has only the strength left to crawl.
As a result, when our explorer reaches the point of no return, the point beyond which the resort is too far away to make it back, he does not even realize it. He does not understand the danger. Sure, he may feel tired and thirsty, but it is not all that bad, and he feels that he can go a little more before turning back to the safety of the resort.
And so he continues on, not realizing that from the moment he crossed the halfway point, he was a dead man. By the time he does decide there is a problem and that he should go back, it is already too late. His body begins to run down fast. Each step becomes harder until he can only crawl, and then he can’t even do that. And so he dies.
This story illustrates the problems of democracies. They likewise do not proceed in a straight line fashion. Changes that will threaten a democratic system may not show any problems, and in fact may even seem beneficial until it is already too late. Farmers who eat all of their crop, including the part that should have been set aside as seed for next year, will for a while seem to be better off, as they will have more to eat. Yet when next year comes and there is no seed to plant and thus no crop, it is already too late; the seeds for next year’s crop have already been eaten.
Now in theory, any change in a democracy can always be undone. Any bad law can always be repealed. This is true in theory; but reality is vastly different for a number of reasons. For one there is the natural resistance to change, and in a democratic system getting a majority to approve of a change is difficult. Even when the problem is recognized by all, getting a majority to agree on a particular solution can be very difficult.
For example, today virtually everyone agrees that Social Security has problems. While there is some disagreement concerning the exact date, there is general agreement that the Social Security system is going to run out of money at some point in the future. There is also agreement that the sooner we address this issue, the easier it will be to fix. Still, while there is a general agreement on the problems, there is no agreement on how to fix Social Security. It is working at the moment, and so nothing is done, and the system continues its stroll into the desert.
There is the further problem that the root cause may be recognized only by a few, or may not even be recognized at all. The apparent problem may be a severe economic slowdown, and demand may be for more government intervention to fix the problem. But if government intervention is what caused the problem in the first place, more government intervention may only exacerbate the slowdown, leading to even more demands for even more intervention, the point of no return having already been long passed.
While, as was the case in Florence, things can spin out of control very quickly, collapse does not always happen this way. A democracy can pass the point of no return, and still function as a democracy for decades before the system collapses. Such was the case with the Roman Republic.
The Fall of the
Roman Republic
When most people think of the fall of Rome, they think of the end of the Roman Empire some 400 years after the birth of Christ. In fact for many, Rome was always ruled by Caesars, without much thought as to how Rome was governed before the first Caesar, Julius, came to power.
In its earliest days, Rome was ruled by kings.3 At the time Rome was little more than just another city on the Italian peninsula. But the Romans quickly tired of the rule of kings. They wanted liberty, and so overthrew the monarchy, setting up a Republic in its place. They kept the king’s body of counselors, or Senate. But instead of a king, the new republic was to be ruled by two consuls, sharing power, and limited to ruling a single year; as a single ruler, able to rule year after year, could easily become a new king.
It was not a perfect democracy by any means. Class played a huge role in Rome, as did class struggles. At the top were the patricians, the ruling class from which came the consuls, and most of the Senate. Next were the equites, often businessmen, their distinguishing feature being, at least initially, that they were rich enough to be able to afford a horse. It is from the equites that we get the word equestrian. These two groups were called the good and were the people of Rome, at least at first. Next in line were the plebs, which included all the rest, except of course for those in the lowest category: the slaves.
The plebs did have the vote, at least in theory, but they were often instructed how they should vote. Still they did have some political power, and the early history of Rome is marked by periods of unrest that resulted in expanded political power for the plebs in the form of new offices, written laws, and eventually the opening of existing offices to plebs, including even consul, though again this was often more in theory than in practice.
One of the
