Chapter Seven - Political Paralysis
The Roman Empire was administered by Big Government. It was a vast machine that awed less organized and less disciplined nations. But it developed alarming weaknesses we need to be warned of today.
"Long before the [barbarian] invasions of the reign of Honorius [395-423 A. D.], the fabric of Roman society and administration was honeycombed by moral and economic vices, which made the belief in the eternity of Rome a vain delusion" (Samuel Dill, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire, p. 277).
Rome possibly could have "fallen" several times in its history. But the leadership of strong men, despite other personal vices or shortcomings, delayed the breakdown of the Empire by the institution of strong administrative reforms.
Following on the heels of Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar more perfectly welded together the unity of the Empire - saving it from the corruption and civil war of the later Republic. Diocletian and Constantine delayed the "end" again by certain reforms in administration and economics in the late third and early fourth centuries. Theodosius and a few other emperors tried desperately to put a stop to rampant corruption and injustices toward the end of the fourth century. But in spite of such leaders, the end finally came.
One man could not take the place of national spirit and unity! A few struggling and concerned men at the top couldn't alter the course of a largely apathetic and morally decadent populace which combined disastrously with the politically corrupt maladministration of underlings.
After the death of Theodosius (395 A. D.), the decay of the Roman Empire in the West was rapidly accelerated. Following emperors were appreciably weaker and incompetent. They became the puppets of scheming advisers, administrators, and military commanders, the latter being largely of barbarian stock.

Giant Bureaucracy, Hobbled Effectiveness
Administrative problems for the Empire gradually intensified through the years. As the Empire grew, Roman administration demanded better collection of taxes and improved distribution of service - especially to the military. A gigantic bureaucracy developed. The imperial civil service, instituted first by Augustus, was greatly enlarged by Diocletian to service the reorganized administration and the greatly enlarged military.
But, true to form, with this rapid expansion of civil service came a downgrading in the quality of administrators. The central government could no longer exercise sufficient discrimination in appointments or keep a close check on conduct of civil service appointees.
By the days of Constantine, administrative corruption was rampant.
"It is clear from Constantine's legislation that he was shocked by the corruption and extortion which prevailed among provincial governors, but he was evidently unable to restore respectable standards of probity" (A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, p. 1054).
And, like today, "red tape" didn't help. "Excessive centralization involved an immense volume labour and slowed up the processes o f government. Nor. did it achieve its object of checking corruption" (ibid., pp. 1056-1057).

Rampant Corruption
A study of the Roman law code reveals the great effort of several emperors to control abuses and injustices rampant in the later Empire. The results? Disheartening!
The paradox is clear. The very institution of law after law is evidence that order was breaking down. Legislation was legion: laws to put down fraud; protect the weak, the slave, the debtor, the poor free man from the rich, the laborer against his superior, the father from the ingratitude of his children; laws against corrupt political practices.
"The last and deepest impression which the inquirer will carry with him, as he rises from a study of the Theodosian Code [issued 438 A. D.], is that fraud and greed are everywhere triumphant, that the rich are growing richer and more powerful while the poor are becoming poorer and more helpless, and that the imperial government, inspired with the best intentions, has lost all control of the vast machine" (Dill, p. 229).
But it wasn't just the bureaucracy which was often criminal. The whole society was infected with the same corrupted spirit!
"Everyone stole. In the army, the clerks stole the pay; the navicularii [commercial tradesmen] charged with the service of the annona [crop tax], stole from the corn; they themselves were exploited by those set over the ports. The recruiters accepted for conscripts the refuse of the coloni. The postal administration exploited travellers. Public servants took bribes for judicial audiences" (Ferdinand Lot, The End of the Ancient World and the Beginnings of the Middle Ages, p. 176)

Many forms of extortion became general practice and caused no great excitement. In the civil services,civil servants increased their salaries by tips or fees. Soon however, the difference between tips and bribes became unclear. But, often, it was the only way to get things done.
And, too often like today, the justice for the rich and the poor were quite different.
"The high courts of justice were so clogged with appeals, the delays so interminable and the fees so high, that the victims of injustice in the lower courts were denied redress unless they had very long purses" (Jones, p. 1057).

Growing Government Paralysis
The crisis resulting from the administrative abuses elaborated by Diocletian and Constantine were a tragedy in the truest sense. There was "a humiliating paralysis of administration; in which determined effort to remedy social evils only aggravated them till they became unbearable; in which the best intentions of the central power were, generation after generation, mocked and defeated alike by irresistible laws of human nature, and by hopeless perfidy and corruption in the servants of government" (Dill, p. 281).
Today, leaders in government, high and low, face the same impasse. Despite all their well-intentioned attempts to alleviate severe problems - social, economic
and political - things only become worse! They are met by opposing factions and forces at every turn. Many of the more capable men are just throwing up their hands and quitting! And so it was in Rome.
Ferdinand Lot, historian, says of the overall condition of later Roman administrations: "In spite of all, the State failed in its role of protector. It was ill served and betrayed by its own agents. This aristocracy was disloyal in its service to the government, while cowering before it. It secretly thwarted it, not so much from hatred as from a spirit of opposition and from selfishness ... the ruling class lost all spontaneity and initiative, and in its case also, character fell very low.... The Empire had become too vast, too cunning and too complicated a mechanism" (p. 185).
Roman bureaucracy, trying to tackle vast problems in every area, couldn't keep track of what was being done. The difficulties increased in complexity and numbers. Result? The Empire was forced to increase the number of individual administrators which limited each one's authority and cut effective communication between each division. One governmental unit was not sure what another one was doing. This further complicated the problems of governing.

Failure of Mutual Aid
In the same years in which the barbarians were actively harrying the Roman
provinces, mutual assistance and concord between the Eastern and Western division of the Empire was urgently needed.
Unfortunately, the reins of government were in the hands of men who for different reasons were unpopular and in all their political actions were influenced chiefly by the consideration o f their own fortunes (J. B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, p. 126).
Thus hampered by ineffective administration, coupled with continual struggles of usurpers for the throne, Rome succumbed to the barbarians within and without the Empire, who took advantage of Roman political turmoil and weakness and, piecemeal, sliced off sections of the Empire.
Political Paralysis

This also was a growing problem in the Empire. Why? Because cities vied with one another in local patriotism, public munificence, public health and order. Lavish and spendthrift expenditures on pageants, public distributions and buildings occurred. Many cities went over their heads in debt.
In order to control this, the emperors increasingly had to interfere in city and provincial administration. The result? "Central authority was called upon to interfere on account of the deplorable defects of municipal administration, while municipal life was disturbed and atrophied by constant interference from above" (The Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. I, p. 554).
Today the situation is similar - only municipal and state governments are often asking the Federal government to step in and rescue them from their out of-control problems. But often they rebel at the conditions which the Federal government wants to impose.

Given Over to Greedy Human Nature
Today, there is a growing consciousness of a credibility gap between what politicians and administrators say and what they actually do! And today, government, large and small, is held in ever-lowering esteem by growing numbers. But government is not always to blame for this situation. The moral character of many individuals is so poor that they have lost respect for any constituted authority, no matter what officials do.
Said one former government official: "Modern Americans have accepted and are tolerating conditions never before permitted by any generation of our ancestors. Never has wild pleasure or physical abandonment been considered fitting human behavior as it is today. Never have public officials been so brazen and open in seeking the vote of the people through promises of things that are morally and spiritually wrong."
In ancient Rome, it was government officials who provided the "bread and circuses" to keep unruly mobs quiet or to win public acclaim. Today, political office often goes to the man who can offer the biggest promises to the most, whether he can deliver them or not - the modern version of "bread and circuses."
And yet, while government seems more distant than ever from the individual, more and more individuals look to big government to do even more for them!