This is probably because the Roman Senate had more power and because public officials were elected into office. Under the Principate, the power of the Senate was drastically reduced, and the dictator appointed public officials instead of holding frequent public elections. However, it should be noted that the Roman bourgeoisie and the urban poor had no less power in the Principate than in the Republic. This means that Livy slightly distorts how democratic the Republic is. Regardless of how democratic the Republic actually was, scholars continue to debate why Roman government transitioned from Republic to Principate. Two of these many reasons are changes in land reform and tax collection. Many leaders had to decide whether taking land from the rich and redistributing it to the poor would be beneficial. As previously mentioned, fewer land reform laws benefiting the poor were passed in each coming year. The responsibility for collecting taxes also changed dramatically as the Roman government began to evolve and change. Initially, governors and publicans were held responsible for this work, but as corruption cases increased, another actor would replace the corrupt one. In the time of the dictator Augustus, procurators were responsible for collection