> Though just to be clear: Rome was never considered a democracy. I did intentionally avoid clarifying this (also, technically the US is a republic) because I

> Though just to be clear: Rome was never considered a democracy. I did intentionally avoid clarifying this (also, technically the US is a republic) because I was trying to paint in broad strokes — I don't think my point needed details to be convincing and so I didn't want to get bogged down in them. I'm happy for the clarification as a reply, though :) A better phrase, which I would have used if I'd thought of it at the time, would be "representative government".