As King of Rome, Servius Tullius (578-535BC) launched several reforms, and none were more significant than the establishment of the comitia centuriata. From this elevated political branch, policy was to be decided by elected officials on the basis of voting blocs. Due to being responsible for defending the state, preponderant representation was held by patricians - a relatively small group of wealthy landowners - over the largely poor and landless plebeians. This political and economic disparity, which had existed prior to the accession of Tullius, set the stage for a two and a half century clash between the oppressed people of Rome and the ruling elite - one that came to be called 'The Struggle of the Orders.'.
In 494BC, the alienated populace made a dramatic, collective decision. They went on strike, and Rome came to a standstill. The patricians suddenly found themselves without an army to take the field or workers to produce goods and deliver services. As a result, the patricians had to concede to several plebeian demands over the course of time. Interestingly, one legislative victory, lex Canuleia, was purely social in nature. This law, promulgated in 445BC, permitted patricians and plebeians to intermarry. Hence, marrying someone outside of one's 'class' was de-stigmatized.
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More significantly, plebeians were granted meaningful political representation. In being able to elect tribunes, they possessed a new and powerful voice to challenge the oligarchical interests of the Senate. Tribunes were also able to check biased and unjust rulings by patrician magistrates and make the process of law more transparent to the general public. By the end of the fifth century BC, the patricians no longer held all the reins of government.
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Over the next one hundred years, the Roman people (the plebeians) continued to fight for equal rights under the law and for economic reform. By 287BC, they emerged victorious after centuries of sacrifice, negotiation and protest by several generations of people determined to leave a more just and hopeful world to their children.
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The Struggle of the Orders, 2011
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While 'The Struggle of the Orders' in ancient Rome may have officially ended in the early third century BC, the struggle for economic, social and political equality has continued unabated for the last two thousand years. In 2011, more than one billion people, one out of every six living human beings, live in poverty. Despite possessing unprecedented scales of wealth, nations of 'The West' (including Japan and South Korea) have considerably large numbers of working poor, poor and homeless people who have all but been left out of the political process. Where are their voices in the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Italy among other countries?
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In the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, it is time for The West to have an honest conversation about the broken world economy and the devastation it has wrought upon the lives of so many. If people in the Middle East and North Africa can face down ruthless dictators, then there is no excuse for citizens of Western nations not to stand up for a more fair and just system of political economy.
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Until every person is afforded the same opportunity to participate equally in society, the struggle must go on.
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(Photo: Remains of three temples in Rome from the third century BC)
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Next Week: The first installment of a two part series examining chronic joblessness, underemployment and poverty in six nations of the former British Empire.
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J Roquen