LESSONS FROM ANTIQUITY: WHAT THE UNITED STATES CAN LEARN FROM ANCIENT ROME'S OVERRELIANCE ON GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS.

The United States has grappled with defining the appropriate limits of government contracting throughout its history. However, this problem is not exclusive to the United States. Nearly two thousand years earlier, the ancient Roman Republic struggled with the same problem. In Rome, the Republic’s inability to define the appropriate limits of government contracting burdened Rome’s procurement system with inefficiency, conflicts of interest, and unaccountability. To avoid repeating the mistakes of former empires, the United States should make a comprehensive policy decision to define the appropriate limits for government contracting. Using a comparative analysis of current trends in the American defense procurement system and the Roman publicani, ancient Roman government contractors, this Note argues that the United States is currently following the same trends that contributed to Rome’s decline. The United States still has time to redefine the limits of government contracting, but if it does not, history may repeat itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]