Why aren't there any consulates anymore?

It seems strange to me that the major form of government in Europe, and the Americas, is a presidential or similar system having only one executive head. If we look back in history we see many of the classical republics, including Rome, had a consulate. Why Sup Forums?

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Did you see what happened to Rome?

A general took unilateral action to overthrow an entire government? Yeah I saw
What's your point?

Consultant was just a fancy word for "guy I fuck"

Literacy levels are low with this one

the only man that tried to reinstate a Roman Imperial form of government ended having to fend off the aggression of the whole of Europe for 15 years only to be painted as the aggressor by anglo revisionists

I don't think hitler tried to reinstate the roman republic so this is irrelevant

Hitler's reich was 0% roman inspired

It had roman inspirations, but like I said that's irrelevant

I wasn't talking about Hitler anyway and it should be obvious because Hitler was the aggressor in WW2.

The consulate was given power by the executive and could not usurp it.

wtf do you think ambassadors are?

Might I ask who you were referencing then?
Napolean?

Barrack Obama obviously

>What is the Fascitii stick
>What is the Roman salute

napoleon was a cool guy but fell before he could reach his goal. Really sad if you think about it.

The consulate is the executive power, I'm not talking about fucking ambassadors.

Anyone mind giving a brainlet here a quick rundown on what the consulates were exactly? I'm having trouble understanding how they operated as a system of government.

>Sulla was the bad guy
commie detected

no shit when you're on your own against the whole fucking modern world.

>talking symbols when discussing forms of government
>implying the roman salute was even a thing before the XVIIIth century

I guess he was a dictator
It was basically another way of organizing an executive branch. Instead of having one person at the head, there were multiple who (in the roman system) would share the power of imperium.

whoops

>Fasces
>Not already re-used by french revolutionaries

Amercan education.

I think there's just Switzerland if you overlooked that country, and their system seems successful. It really is strange that they are the only ones that do this as this system of a small group of people splitting power sounds like a good idea.

I guess you could argue that a single person at the top is naturally influenced by his cabinet and party and whatnot, doesn't and can't really make decisions by himself, so the system used by most countries might not really be that different in practice.

Consuls were elected two at a time (separately) and served one-year terms, alternating rule each month. Really not a good system, especially if there was a war going on. America tried having the runner up in the Presidential election become the Vice President in imitation of Rome, but it didn't make anyone happy as it meant the President's second in command was also his strongest opponent.

This guys is explained better

There are consulates everywhere. Basically they are embassy "branch office" outside the capital city.

>A general took unilateral action to overthrow an entire government?

Not hi, but I'm guessing his point was that a weak divided government is vulnerable to being overthrown. It happened to Rome at least three times (Sulla, Julius Casar and Augustus.)

FUCK THE CONSULATES WHAT WE NEED IS CAESAR! ROMA INVICTA! HAIL CAESAR!

Thanks, that helped

Politicians are psychos. They can't share.

It was further weakened in that the Consuls could each veto the actions of their co-consul.

Most laughably, maybe, in wartime if the Consuls' armies camped together, the Consuls would each command on alternating days. This lead either to command decisions that fluctuated madly, or to consuls splitting their forces even when the situation required them to merge them (such as Arausio.)

But they were honorable men.
youtube.com/watch?v=0bi1PvXCbr8

Europe has literally no nations with presidential systems...

Every political system is on a spectrum of concentration of power, from monarchy/dictatorship (one person has all power) to classical democracy (older male landowners had power) to modern democracy (anyone over 18 has power) to anarchy (no one has power). History causes societies to move and wobble along this spectrum.

(Of course, what actually is 'power' is not a fixed matter. The favorite concubine-slave of an emperor can be more powerful than a rich and popular general).

Anyway, the classical system of consuls was an attempt to prevent monarchy from happening again (from Rome's earlier period). The system was meant to balance the need-someone-to-get-shit-done with the need-to-prevent-one-person-from-becoming-too-powerful. It worked surprisingly well, given that it took around 400 years (roughly from Superbus to Sulla) before it finally broke down. I don't think our modern democracies will last that long.