When read together, striking parallels emerge — between our failings and the failings that destroyed the Roman Republic. As with Rome just before the Republic’s fall, America has seen:
1 — Staggering Increase in the Cost of Elections, with Dubious Campaign Funding Sources: Our 2012 election reportedly cost $3 billion. All of it was raised from private sources – often creating the appearance, or the reality, that our leaders are beholden to special interest groups. During the late Roman Republic, elections became staggeringly expensive, with equally deplorable results. Caesar reportedly borrowed so heavily for one political campaign, he feared he would be ruined, if not elected.
2 — Politics as the Road to Personal Wealth: During the late Roman Republic period, one of the main roads to wealth was holding public office, and exploiting such positions to accumulate personal wealth. As Lessig notes: Congressman, Senators and their staffs leverage their government service to move to private sector positions – that pay three to ten times their government compensation. Given this financial arrangement, “Their focus is therefore not so much on the people who sent them to Washington. Their focus is instead on those who will make them rich.” (Republic Lost)
3 — Continuous War: A national state of security arises, distracting attention from domestic challenges with foreign wars. Similar to the late Roman Republic, the US – for the past 100 years — has either been fighting a war, recovering from a war, or preparing for a new war: WW I (1917-18), WW II (1941-1945), Cold War (1947-1991), Korean War (1950-1953), Vietnam (1953-1975), Gulf War (1990-1991), Afghanistan (2001-ongoing), and Iraq (2003-2011). And, this list is far from complete.
4 — Foreign Powers Lavish Money/Attention on the Republic’s Leaders: Foreign wars lead to growing influence, by foreign powers and interests, on the Republic’s political leaders — true for Rome and true for us. In the past century, foreign embassies, agents and lobbyists have proliferated in our nation’s capital. As one specific example: A foreign businessman donated $100 million to Bill Clinton‘s various activities. Clinton “opened doors” for him, and sometimes acted in ways contrary to stated American interests and foreign policy.
5 — Profits Made Overseas Shape the Republic’s Internal Policies: As the fortunes of Rome’s aristocracy increasingly derived from foreign lands, Roman policy was shaped to facilitate these fortunes. American billionaires and corporations increasingly influence our elections. In many cases, they are only nominally American – with interests not aligned with those of the American public. For example, Fox News is part of international media group News Corp., with over $30 billion in revenues worldwide. Is Fox News’ jingoism a product of News Corp.’s non-U.S. interests?
6 — Collapse of the Middle Class: In the period just before the Roman Republic’s fall, the Roman middle class was crushed — destroyed by cheap overseas slave labor. In our own day, we’ve witnessed rising income inequality, a stagnating middle class, and the loss of American jobs to overseas workers who are paid less and have fewer rights.
7 — Gerrymandering: Rome’s late Republic used various methods to reduce the power of common citizens. The GOP has so effectively gerrymandered Congressional districts that, even though House Republican candidates received only about 48 percent of the popular vote in the 2012 election — they ended up with the majority (53 percent) of the seats.
8 — Loss of the Spirit of Compromise: The Roman Republic, like ours, relied on a system of checks and balances. Compromise is needed for this type of system to function. In the end, the Roman Republic lost that spirit of compromise, with politics increasingly polarized between Optimates (the rich, entrenched elites) and Populares (the common people). Sound familiar? Compromise is in noticeably short supply in our own time also. For example, “There were more filibusters between 2009 and 2010 than there were in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s combined.”
By Steven Strauss
he must be wrong
the internets posters here don't agree with him
Steven Strauss
John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School
Steven Strauss is the John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. He is a leading expert on strategy in the public and private sectors, having worked on projects in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia on topics such as: Economic Development, Financial Services Reform, Health Systems Reform, Higher Education Reform, and Investment and Risk Management (including work for one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds). Strauss is a frequent contributor at: BusinessInsider, EconoMonitor, The Huffington Post, and Project-Syndicate. For 2012, he was an Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard University. In 2010, along with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and other prominent New Yorkers, Strauss was selected by BusinessInsider for the Silicon Alley 100.
Immediately prior to Harvard, Strauss was the Managing Director in charge of the Center for Economic Transformation for the Bloomberg administration in NYC, and was responsible for NYC's strategic reviews of its major private sector industries (e.g., Financial Services.NYC.2020, Media.NYC.2020, Fashion.NYC.2020, EducationTechnology.NYC.2020, NYCEDC Innovation Index). Culminating in the NYC Game Changers initiative, this work identified major strategic moves for NYC's economic development, including a recommendation that NYC focus on higher-growth knowledge-based industries. Strauss' work resulted in numerous initiatives, including: Applied Sciences NYC (Mayor Bloombergs new engineering campus in NYC), General Assembly (an innovation campus in Manhattan's Flatiron District), the 160 Varick Street Incubator (in partnership with Trinity Realty and NYU-Poly), the NYC NextIdea Business Plan Competition, NYC BigApps, Hive@55, NYC Media Lab, and the NYC Entrepreneurial Fund.
Immediately prior to his role with NYC, Strauss was with the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company. Strauss was responsible for the Forums inaugural Financial Development Index, a comprehensive look at global financial systems, and co-authored the Forums report on the Convergence of Insurance with Capital Markets. From 1980 to 1996, Strauss held progressively more senior positions in the financial services industry at various firms.
Strauss graduated from NYU with a BA in 1980 and earned a Ph.D. in Management from Yale University in 2002.
