How Republics Die: Rome's democratic breakdown in the first century BCE. This project aims to use recent political science scholarship on democratic breakdown and the threat of a competitive authorita

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How Republics Die: Rome's democratic breakdown in the first century BCE. This project aims to use recent political science scholarship on democratic breakdown and the threat of a competitive authoritarian regime in Trump’s US to analyse the breakdown of the Roman Republic in the 50s BCE under Caesar and Pompey. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of how and why constitutional government collapsed in Rome, using language and concepts directly transferable to our own fragile democracy. This should benefit the study of Roman history at all levels and provide historians and political scientists with a unique dataset for analysing how a centuries-old democracy fell into authoritarian rule.. Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Field: 2103 - Historical Studies. Lead: Dr David Rafferty