More Roman America

In OTL the US adopted many forms of Roman government such as the Senate.What if the new Republic had gone further and made the heads of states Consuls elected Roman style, called DC Nova Roma, made Latin one of the official languages, named cities and states in Latin, and so on? Who would be first two consuls?
 
John Adams and George Washington (Alexander Hamilton, if we're ignoring Washington)

I think Washington might get 6-month dictator status and then Hamilton and Jefferson would go as consuls.

In any case this leads to either of two things:
1) Political parties don't form at all,
2) When formed there is much greater incentive to work cooperatively, unless one party is so popular they provide both consuls, in which case they probably deserve the power.
 
I think Washington might get 6-month dictator status and then Hamilton and Jefferson would go as consuls.

In any case this leads to either of two things:
1) Political parties don't form at all,
2) When formed there is much greater incentive to work cooperatively, unless one party is so popular they provide both consuls, in which case they probably deserve the power.

Political parties would still form. They'd just not be popular parties, simply like-minded legislators teaming up. That's for the most part all they are anyway, and I don't see why a more closed democratic system would necessarilly wipe away political parties.
 
Political parties would still form. They'd just not be popular parties, simply like-minded legislators teaming up. That's for the most part all they are anyway, and I don't see why a more closed democratic system would necessarilly wipe away political parties.
Quite so; as soon as there are any significant number of people involved in the government you'll see some sort of factions forming. People who hold similar views will inevitably ally with each other even if there are no formal parties.
 
But at the same time, at least in US politics, it seems that one party will say 'up' just because the other even hints at 'down'. So... debatable.
 
One problem with having a US more Romanesque is how to disuade the attitude that came through in the Late Republic and then in the Principate Era... the one of seizing power and civil wars and nasty transitions. Find a way around that and I think it would be good. You'd also have to determine in times of crisis a senior and junior consul to prevent what happened with the Romans occasionally of one consul refusing to help the other in order to gain more power.
 
One problem with having a US more Romanesque is how to disuade the attitude that came through in the Late Republic and then in the Principate Era... the one of seizing power and civil wars and nasty transitions. Find a way around that and I think it would be good. You'd also have to determine in times of crisis a senior and junior consul to prevent what happened with the Romans occasionally of one consul refusing to help the other in order to gain more power.
So, we'd have President and Vice President, only Roman-styled ones. I don't see any problems with Roman institutions, if they are put such way.
 
Well, here's a diagram of the Roman system of checks and balances. You can see, it's pretty hideously complex. I don't think they'd adopt the type of seperation of powers implied by the Roman system, because it precludes a federalist system of government.

In essence, the Roman Republic was a parliamentary system, and I don't think it would be to much to suggest that they adopted more basic elements of the system, such as consuls elected by the legislature serving as heads of government, and people's tribunes elected to counterpoise them, in sort of a system similar to France's semi-presidential system.
 
Jello's right, plus, the founders were pretty skeptical about constitutions that had failed, like the Republic's and Athens' (I think the latter's why they took DC's representation away).

That said, I do think we could use some more of the Roman institutions and checks and balances. I think we could use the plebeian tribune as an additional check on the kind of corruption of power we've seen in the Wilson and Bush II Adminiistration, and the War on Drugs. Some kind of military legislative body would also, IMHO, choose better generals than the miserable lot that's made it up the bureaucracy to the top, and improve military administration in several ways.
 
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