Vox populi - vox dei: elections in the Roman Republic and modern democracies (comparative analysis)

The article provides a comparative analysis of ancient and modern technologies for the legitimation of political power, using the example of the Roman Republic and the currently existing democracies. The focus is on the electoral procedure that unites to the utmost the direct (in ancient times) and representative (in modern times) democratic systems. In ancient Rome, in legitimating the electoral procedure the predominant role was played by religious acts, viz. two divination procedures to reveal the will of the gods (auspicia). One was held right before an election and the other during its course, ending with the annunciation of the voting result (renuntiatio). This was the key act in the procedure of electing new magistrates, without which an election was considered invalid regardless of its actual result. The procedure of announcing the voting results actually retains the ritual function of legitimation in modern democracies as well. This mission is assigned, as a rule, to representatives of the election commissions. In the modern world, the ancient Roman religious rituals have an analogy in the form of public opinion polls and political forecasts on the eve of elections which have acquired a ritual legitimizing character in modern democracies. During elections in ancient Rome, a decisive influence on the voting results was exerted by drawing of lots which determined the sequence for casting votes. Modern states, too, try to enhance their legitimation by introducing the aleatory (by lot) form of democratic procedures. Thus, the methods of legitimation of ancient and modern democracies have a certain similarity in the ritual support of the electoral process and in the preservation of the practice of choosing by lot in the electoral procedure. But the legitimating practices of modern democracy have been supplemented with the foreign policy factor, which did not exist in ancient Rome. Also, there was no powerful information pressure in the Roman Republic as there was no media. Today’s democracy is increasingly metamorphosing into mediacracy - a form of government where the interests of political actors are closely intertwined with the interests of media conglomerates.