The Roman Republic, where did it all go wrong?

[Beskar]

For the sake of nitpicking, republic and democracy aren't exclusive, and the US is a republican democracy :-P The same goes for monarchism and democracy, yada yada, you know the tune.

You can have a Republican Ditactorship too.

Also, you are incorrect, Meneldil. America is a Consitutional Republic, not a democracy.

[Kralizec]

It's both, according to modern usage of the terms.

The founding fathers said that they weren't a democracy, but a republic. However, at the time, democracy was understood to mean direct democracy only. Representative democracy was a novel concept, and not known under that name at the time.

[Fragony]

I would say it ended with the age of emperors, that is of course the king of obvious, but I think the man that was Augustus shouldn't be ignored, he ruled the senate without the senate losing face. A lesser ruler wouldn't have been able to keep things nice and tidy.