Once free, the Romans established a republic, a government in which citizens elected representatives to rule on their behalf. A republic is quite different from a democracy, in which every citizen is expected to play an active role in governing the state. The Roman Republic [ushistory.org]
Early Voting in Ancient Greece
Since approximately 508 B.C., Ancient Greece seems to have implemented the earliest form of democracy. Greeks had a "negative" election -- that is, each year voters, who were the male land owners, were asked to vote for the political leader or "candidates" they most wanted to be exiled for the next ten years.
The early ballot system was voters wrote their choice on broken pieces of pots, ostraka in Greek, and from this name comes our present word to ostracize. If any "candidate" received more than 6,000 votes then the one with the largest number was exiled. If no politician received 6,000 votes then they all remained. Since voters were only male land owners, the number of voters was small. If there was a fairly even spread of votes, no one would be exiled, so usually only very unpopular political leaders were ostracized or exiled.
Today, however, there are few politicians who would survive 6,000 negative votes!
History Of Elections
Elections are not new to India. There are numerous mentions of republican forms of governments in Buddhist literature as well as in the accounts of Greek invaders who described some states as 'pure democracies'. This excerpt from V.S. Rama Devi and S.K. Mendiratta's book 'How India Votes: Election Laws, Practice and Procedure' sheds light on the history of voting and elections in ancient India. (Photo Source: Nilanjana Chaudhary/Al Jazeera/Flickr)How India Votes: History of Elections in Ancient India | Sahapedia
The main legislative assembly of the late Republic was the Comitia Tributa, which was also in charge of the elections of Roman magistrates. This assembly was organised around the voting unit of the tribe – a territorial unit to which each Roman citizen belonged by birth or legal act. Elections in the late Roman Republic: how did they work?
- 2
- Show all