Roman government VS American government

The Ancient Roman citizens in 50 BC had more rights than the American citizens in 1790. The Roman society in 50 BC was a republic which was controlled by the senate, but the patricians also played a major role in the government. However, the American government in 1790 was set up as a democracy, with a new constitution. The Roman society gave all of its citizen’s legal rights, including women. Not only did Rome give the Romans legal rights, there was also better social mobility and wealth distribution. While, in America there were many needless requirements in order for its citizens to take part in government. Both countries had slaves, but they used them for much different purposes.

The laws of Rome were put in place in order to protect all of the citizens. A portion of their laws protected the legal rights of the children. One of these laws was, “every person should support his own offspring, and anyone who thinks that he can abandon his child shall be subjected to the penalty prescribed by law”. While Rome had laws to protect all of the citizens, the American laws consisted of freedoms such as freedom of speech and right to bear arms. These laws do not protect the citizens; they merely give citizens the right to do such things as carrying a gun. Also in America, they claimed to prohibit cruel and unusual punishment. The American people believed that cruel and unusual punishment was unethical, and the United States of America would not support such a thing. However, the government would simply have another country do the punishing, so the United States appeared to have followed this law. However, the people did not know this, the government didn’t want the people to realize that it was actually breaking its own law. While Ameri...

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...on people, and over half a million slaves. One eighth of the American population was slaves, yet they had no rights.

While these countries did not thrive in the same era they have similarities, but more importantly they have differences. Their governments were set up differently America as a democracy, and Rome a republic. They both had a rich class, middle class, and a slave class. However, it was how they treated each class which made these governments so different. While in America the wealthy class ran the government, in Rome both high and middle classes were part of government. Rome’s citizens had more legal rights, higher social mobility, and treated their slaves better. Rather than in America which gave its citizens fewer rights by excluding members who do not own the required property, had lower social mobility, and treated slaves much worse than the Romans.