Did the Roman Republic have a democratic government?

The Roman Republic didn't have one government, it had several institutions which had different functions. The Republic itself was democratic in the sense that there were elections, that the positions were not hereditary, that the government was handled by magistrates, that there were term limits and that all public officials were elected. read more

Under the Roman republic all citizens of the first class had a right to vote and to select their rulers. This tradition has come down to us in all the democratic governments of today. Under the Roman republic all citizens of the first class had a right to vote and to select their rulers. read more

The Roman Republic At about the same time that popular government was introduced in Greece, it also appeared on the Italian Peninsula in the city of Rome. The Romans called their system a rēspūblica, or republic, from the Latin rēs, meaning thing or affair, and pūblicus or pūblica, meaning public—thus, a republic was the thing that belonged to the Roman people, the populus romanus. read more