Preserving Democracy
The Montreal Review, January, 2010
Social equality and timely reforms save democracy
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Tiberius Gracchus and Caius Gracchus. Two brothers from a prominent Roman family.
Tiberius's life finished prematurely. He was killed with a piece of chair on the Capitol, close by the statues of the kings; his body was thrown in Tiber River. Tiberius death marks the beginning of political violence in Rome. With his death Pandora's box was open in the Roman republic.
About ten years later, Caius Gracchus, Tiberius's younger brother, committed suicide assisted by a slave.
The brothers were political reformers. They wanted to reform Rome, to restore the balance of power in the republic - to limit the power of Roman Senate through raising the influence of popular assembly as it was in the old times. They had an ambitious program for land reform through which the impoverished in the recent decades Roman citizens could become again owners of middle size farms. They wanted to take land from the big plots of the Senatorial class and to divide it among the landless Romans. Their supposed goal was the returning of Roman military and political greatness that, during their lifetime, was in decline; and they saw in restoring social equality and balance of power the only way through which the Roman power can be rebuild.
Their political ambitions led to their death. It was late for bloodless reforms. The Roman Senate was too powerful, too rich, and too greedy to accept returning of the old status quo when the popular assembly and the tribunes (Gracchus brothers were tribunes or peoples' representatives in the Senate) had power to influence the political decisions. There were too many poor citizens and too few families with great wealth. The Roman political and social system was already too rigid to return its old flexibility. Political and social flexibility, checks and balances - these were the internal powers that led Rome to the top of the Ancient world. With the time they had been lost.
Gracchus brothers believed that they could restore the greatness of the Roman political system. They argued that they do not want a reform; rather, Gracchus insisted, they wanted a return to the tradition. The Senate charged them with tyranny and populism. The Senate accused them in unconstitutional actions and killed them.
The reader can easily find information about the details of Gracchus' political activities, their story and the results from their efforts. Some of the best historical sources - the writings of Appian, Livy, Plutarch, and Velleius Paterculus,- are available online and at public libraries.
What did happen with the Roman republic after Gracchus brothers?
The Gracchus' project did not succeed. The Senate anyway lost its political power shortly after the civilian reformism of Gracchus. The Roman Senate lost its political leadership in favour of the generals. The military reform, supported by political and economic reforms that will produce content Roman citizens and soldiers, the reform that Gracchus imagined, did not realize. The army fell in the hands of ambitious generals - first Marius, later Sulla, Pompeius and Caesar. These leaders produced content soldiers, not happy citizens. The generals revived the greatness of Roman military machine, but along with this they changed the core of the Roman political system. These powerful individuals, leaders of loyal armies, crushed the power of the Senate. For first time in nearly 700 years of ascending Roman history Roman soldiers marched into Rome with the intention to conquer it. The real tyrants, the generals, came without asking for power, they were not reformers, they were usurpers.
It wouldn't be a mistake if we conclude that the Roman republic died with the death of Gracchus brothers.
Shortly after Gracchus' unsuccessful social revolution, Rome becomes kingdom ("Principate"), an empire led by Emperor. Rome had never been a democracy, it was an oligarchy, an aristocratic society that became too aristocratic at the time of Gracchus, but with the coming of Caesar, the first leader aiming unlimited power, more than 500 years of republican, aristocratic tradition were canceled.
The first political lesson from this story is that the balance of power and the relative social equality in democratic societies should be kept. It is in interest of all political and social equality to be preserved. The political flexibility, which is a feature only of democratic societies, would be lost if the social equality disappear - if the majority become impoverished, and a tiny minority amass the wealth of the nation. Poor and angry citizens cannot support democratic institutions. Once the social equality is destroyed, the time for political populists and usurpers is coming.
The second lesson is that the reforms - social, economic and political - should be made while the problem is still "hot." They should be made with energy and boldness. There is always a risk in the immediate reaction, but the late response is always more risky. In the case of Rome, namely the slow reaction, the long lasting unwillingness of the Roman society to make changes in its distorted social and political order, was the source of all troubles and eventually the reason for the destruction of the Roman republic. When the will for reforms finally appeared Rome was already unable of peaceful changes. Gracchus brothers and their supporters, the populares, came too late to be able to save the future of the republic. 
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