Similarities:
*Controlled land outside of their borders
*Had a legislative, executive and judicial branches
*Each had a large number of poor and unemployed and the government has used the dole and other aid packages to help the people causing a great drain on the finances of the government
*Apathy of many of the common people in politics and in life
*Both had a throw off a foreign power to establish a nation
*System of checks and balances to see that no single branch of government was stronger than another. The veto is idea taken from Romans.
*Both have similarities in individual freedoms like writ of habeas corpse, trial by jury, innocent until proven guilty, right of appeal, and many others.
*Controlled large land mass.
*Senate - In Rome these were the wealthy and were self-serving. In US many are career senators and from the elite in America, and focused often on pork-barrel money bills.
*After hundreds of years, imports greater than exports, so money is rolling out and the government/economy is looking at rising debt.
*Religion was a central part of each societies, but religious tolerance also existed to some level. (The US has had its dark moments of religious intolerance, too.)
*Any law that seemed unreasonable or grossly unfair could be set aside. In the US this is similar to declaring something unconstitutional.
Differences:
*Rome conquered, kept, and control by subjection. The US tries to include people into the nation. True it does have territories, but then it grants the people citizen unlike the Romans.
*Had a Caesar who ran most things without control by others
*Romans also used the entertainment of the coliseum to keep the mobs happy.
*In US many potential politicians stay away from politics to stay out of the public eye, so the best do not try to reform or rule.
*In the US they remained friends and allies with England, while the Romans conquered the Greeks and Etruscans.
*No real system to control the emperors existed except to overthrow them. America is far more balanced, although, it is a source of political frustration to find that balance.
*In Rome you could appeal unto Caesar, but only if you were a citizen. Here in America the appeal process is extended to many and has many levels throughout the judicial system.
*In the US every citizen has born natural rights such as the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In the Roman Empire many were just subjects and not citizens.
*The US holds elections to find leaders, while the Romans used military power to bring in a new Caesar.
*t was common for emperors to have enemies killed, but assassinations are not accept in America.
