Much as in chess, in that the longer you take to move, the more time you have to maximize efficiency and skill for each turn; politics can be seen in a similar light. Because of the individual tendency toward order, and a collective tendency toward chaos, modern democracy, in embracing chaos to a certain degree, is laying the foundations for a long lasting political system. Imperial Rome (SPQR) experienced a very high point and a very low point followed by collapse, both of which were caused by an imperator being at the helm. Whereas the United States of America (USA) has seen highs and lows, and will continue to experience such an alternating pattern for a long time, so long as it doesn't have an emperor.
SPQR gained extreme influence around the Mediterranean and into Europe after Augustus' death in 14 CE, leaving marks on cultures that existed then, that are visible now (Romance languages). How is it possible that they could control so much and monopolize the entirety of the Mediterranean after Octavian's 41 year tenure, then continue to hold it until about 500 AD? Because of the increase in loyalty of soldiers to their generals as they were led successfully across Europe during the republic years, a series of civil wars saw the rise and fall of consul Caesar, and then Octavian (later Augustus), who completely changed the Roman government to submit to him. The presence of a single, decisive ruler and a military that is largely loyal to him caused the empire to expand in a rapid series of military victories. And the SPQR government granted many more liberties to free males of assimilated territories than most previous empires, adding to the cultural wealth of the state as a whole. This golden age of SPQR can be seen as a positive aspect and concrete detail to support the idea that control by an individual has a tendency toward order. But as can be seen by the fall of SPQR, such a fast power gain does not equate to a 'thousand year reich,' as Hitler might have said it. The third century crisis was an outcry of chaos that occurred during the third century AD, which is best characterized by the reign of some more than 20 emperors during a 50 year period. Naturally, the constant war and rivalries led to a massive economic depression, which was worsened by emperors taking the valuable parts of the metal in coins out to further themselves. When the SPQR populace caught on, they devolved into a system of bartering to replace their devalued currency. This halted much foreign trade, making the economy worse and worse. In an effort to stop inflation, the emperor at the time, Diocletian, released an edict that standardized the price of all goods, and froze people into their vocations permanently. Intending to make his empire better, he received the opposite effect, an increase in state-directed hate. Seeking protection from the constantly-at-war state, the peasant population largely fled to the territories of the newly re-empowered aristocracy, laying the grounds for European feudalism. After the advent of Roman Christianity, the imperator Constantine the Great converted to Christianity and declared the official state religion to be such. Seeking the more Christian side of the empire, Constantine moved the center of power to Byzantium, and changed its name to Constantinople (modern Istanbul), effectively splitting the empire in two. Some historians consider the move to Byzantium the end, and some consider the population shift the end, but in either case, the imperial structure is to blame. Undoubtedly SPQR imperialism isn't perfect, but the downfall can obviously be attributed to human greed and lust for power, proving that the efficiency of the individual is always eventually overrun by the malignance of the masses.
The governments of modern and ancient democracys, however, are different not only in the political structuring, but in that this political structuring "embraces the chaos", in a manner of speaking, slowing down the progress of a society, but lengthening its potential longevity indefinitely. This is exemplified by the government of the USA. Though some aspects of modern USA politics are derived from SPQR, they are derived from the republic, and not the empire (ex.: modern senate, from Latin senatus, meaning council of elders). The USA system of government isn't perfect either: it's slow, because every decision that is made goes through hundreds of people rather than through one. The 'leader' of the USA, though, is clearly the president, whose face appears in international politics even, but his individual power is limited compared the the imperator. In a world where a leader has more power than the president, he could potentially be benevolent and fix a society, or be corrupt and take what he can without being stopped. Additionally, in a world where the leader has more power, more people will aggressively seek the job, because of their very human desire for power, exposing the citizens to a new world of economic and physical pain. Many highs and lows have been witnessed by the civilians of the USA, notably the great depression, the California gold rush's boom and busts, the 2008 stock market thinger, the genesis of the PC, Reaganomics, etc., but never a golden age, and never a collapse. As a society, the USA cannot fully embrace the chaos without letting everyone participate fully in politics, so the current system is to blame for all of the booms and busts that have occured, but it's also responsible for the increased longevity that acknowledging chaos has wrought. In conclusion, the USA system has a tremendous advantage over the SPQR empire, because they employ hundreds of people to make the laws, slowing the progress of the nation in general, and causing dozens of up and down periods, but embracing the disorder through these and laying the foundations for a potentially long-lasting civilization.
Because of the chaos that the collective masses bring, SPQR crashed to the ground, and the USA has not, and never will so long as the leader has equal or less power than now. The importance of imperial SPQR is undeniable; they are a teaching tool for the people of the future, as every civilization is, but particularly so in that they had a comparatively well-publicized decline, and in using it, the future can be predicted.Though the indecision is very frustrating to the people of the world and the USA, it can be shown that the USA is secure for many years to come because of it, and beyond this that togetherness means chaos, as human nature bubbles out of the hard, civilized exterior, showing that SPQR fell because of the sheer number of disempowered people that dwelled their.
