Constitution of Urcea: Difference between revisions

Many of the constitutional institutions of Urcea find their origins in the government of [[Great Levantia]], a classical republic based on executive Consuls, an aristocratic Senate, and a democratic tribal assembly. Many scholars have noted that [[Urcea]] is characterized by such an embrasure of semi-democratic institutions while eschewing total democracy, either classical or modern, and scholars have posited that this impulse is a cultural tradition handed down from the days of [[Great Levantia]]. The tribal assemblies were the only institution to survive the collapse of [[Great Levantia]], and in their Urceopolitan form they elected [[Gaius Julius Cicurninus]] and his predecessors as ''Dux'' of [[Urceopolis (City)|Urceopolis]], and formed the backbone of political life in Urceopolis until the elevation of the Duchy into the hereditary [[Urceopolis (Archduchy)|Archduchy of Urceopolis]], when the Assemblies began to lose their authority vis-a-vis the Archduke. Meeting regularly until 852, they continued to meet intermittently up through 917 in some form or other as the Archduke began to consolidate authority over the affairs of state. For a century, the Archduke sat alone, though far from ruling with anything resembling the later impulse of absolutism. The tribes continued to exist even as they did not meet, the authority of the Archduke was largely checked by powerful landowners and [[Social class in Urcea|optimates]] throughout the Archduchy.