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Representative Government? The last century of the Roman Republic was an example of oligarchy. The Senatorial class had taken the lion’s share of the wealth gained by Roman conquests and came to own all of Italy. Slaves displaced the people from the land and forced them into town. Veterans were bought off by land grants on the frontier, far from Rome. In Caesar, the Oligarchs reaped what they had sown. All Augustus did was to strip them of a power they had misused in the first place. All in all, the emperors, except for the break down under Nero, gave Romans two hundred years of government that were much better than they what theyt had during the last few generations of the Republic.

As I said, at times it was about as representative as you could get, given the era (that's not saying much, I know - Senators who cared about their districts were few and far between). I would point out that, just as in those times, even today, if you want access to the politicians, you better have some money for them (or their campaign as it is) - this holds true for Republicans and Democrats, and God forbid if you think you can run for a major office with just good ideas and good intentions - the people with the money or who can attract the money will stomp you into the ground.

Let me ask you this - you mentioned the slaves displacing people from the land, what do you think of comparing it to the illegal immigrants of today - if George Bush gets his way (and something tells me he will - he's been very arrogant about wanting his "guest workers" legalized, and when he acts that way, he usually finds a way to make it happen), millions and millions of illegal immigrants will become American citizens, and they will legally be able to go after the lower class jobs that many avoid these days for fear of being caught (it's a lot easier doing day labor where you're paid in cash than working for companies that might create a paper trail you'd rather avoid). It could cause a huge disruption, to say the least, as well as seeing a situation where we end up having even more people go to the government for handouts.