Frank Frost Abbott, The Referendum and the Recall Among the Ancient Romans (1915)
“ I find no attention whatever paid to the long experience which Rome had with both of them, for the Romans practised the recall a century or more, and direct legislation was a part of their system of government even longer. I presume the long stretch of the Dark Ages which separates us from Roman times prevents us from seeing how much there was in them which we can study with profit. ”
Frank Frost Abbott, The Referendum and the Recall Among the Ancient Romans (1915)
“ But, as we have seen, we must wait a generation for the data to collect. Even if the experience which the Roman people had with the recall and the referendum should not held us to solve our problems, the way in which these two methods of enforcing the popular will developed in another democracy may not be without interest. The fact that Rome's territory was as widespread, her population as heterogeneous as our own, makes the comparison of her experiences with ours the more tempting and pertinent. ”
Frank Frost Abbott, The Referendum and the Recall Among the Ancient Romans (1915)
“ Here we see, then, two independent lines of political tradition, under one of which the precedent has been set of punishing for official misconduct, at the end of his term of office, a magistrate with civil functions; under the other an official, whose duties are largely military, may be deposed from office. Only the fires of revolution were needed to weld these two lines into one and establish the principle of recall for any official in political grounds. ”
