As you no doubt know, Augustus “re-established” the Republic in form while continuing to hold the real power himself.
Which, frankly, was necessary at the time. The Republic had demonstrated itself beyond dispute to be incapable of governing, and Augustus did quite a good job. Certainly an enormous improvement for all but the tiny number of aristos who lost their chance for power.
The biggest difference between the last century of the Republic and America today is the absence of personal power blocs. We don’t have anything even vaguely resembling the massive client bases built up by individual patron aristocrats and warlords.
But the whole patron and client thing is exactly how the Mafia worked, exemplified in The Godfather movie by the scene with Bonasera the undertaker. Well, that is pretty much exactly how the Roman Republic functioned, except individual patrons would have entire familes, cities and even nations as their clients.
>>>As you no doubt know, Augustus “re-established” the Republic in form while continuing to hold the real power himself.<<<
Which has always scared me, and that fear has remained with me even after learning it more than 35 years ago. I can easily see the tyrant killing the republic while cooing softly about his (or her) love of the old civic virtues.
>>>Augustus did quite a good job<<<<
And so the people forgot the republic and embraced the tyrant.
Maybe the American experiment, like the Roman one and the Athenian one, has certain elemental flaws which lead to its demise, and two thousand years from now a group of geniuses will make improvements. Either that, or we’re on the road to empire. I guess we’ll see.