Ancient Athenian government had an impact on our history. It strived for a fair and equal government run by the citizens of Athens. This form of democratic government laid the foundation for many democratic governments that followed. The Golden age of Athens was an important time in history. Athenian government was made up of different people. An Archon was the chief ruler or lord. The Archons were chosen by the Areopagus, a council of former rulers and respected individuals. The councils jobs consisted of daily tasks, crime issues, and taking care of widows and orphans. Athenian government was under the rule of Pericles for fifteen years. He led Athens along with an assembly of individuals that made up thousands of men. Members could speak …show more content…
to the assembly and all had the right to vote on issues. Most voting took place by raising of the assembly’s hands and majority ruled. Issues talked about were decided by the Council of 500, or Boule. These individuals were selected by drawing names from a bowl. Ten triibes of Athens chose 50 men, age 30 or over to represent the council. Pericles believed every person had a right to participate in government. Therefore, he paid jurors for the time they served.
Athenians believed that justice should be served in court trials. Verdicts were determined by large numbers of citizens. Private cases called for 501 citizens, one or more officials involved a jury of 1001, and the more serious cases had juries of up to 1501 citizens. Trials were finished in one day decided by a secret ballot and no appeals were granted. Talbot 2 Modern American Governement consists of a Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branch. The executive branch of government carries out and enforces laws. The President is the head of the executive branch. He is assisted by the Vice President, department heads, and heads of independent agencies. The current head official is President Donald Trump. The Legislative branch is composed of the House and Senate. The legislative branch makes all laws, declares war, regulates interstate and foreign commerce and controls taxing and spending policies. The current leaders in Congress are the Republican Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy and Democratic Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi. The third branch of governement is the Judicial branch and it includes the federal courts and the organizations that support them. This branch …show more content…
of government is in charge of administering the laws of the state and resolving legal conflicts. Athenian and American Democracy had similiarities and differences. Athenians wanted a government that included all citizens. However, only males were considered citizens. This left out women and slaves.
The U.S. constitution also denied representation to women and slaves. It took 150 years for the United States to change this issue. Our founding fathers were inspired by the democratic institutions of ancient Athens. Ancient Athens was a direct democracy in which every citizen could vote on every decision of government and officials were chosen randomly. The U.S. citizens elect officials to represent them and the representatives do the majority of lawmaking and governing. The U.S. Congress takes the role that the Assembly and Council of 500 did in Ancient Athens, proposing and voting on legislation in a similar way, but it’s made up of a much smaller body of elected representatives than the Assembly. Ancient Athenian trials were performed in a day by randomly selected jurors between 200 and 6,000 citizens. Cases were run by rulers who were also chosen by lot and had no formal training with no power to Talbot 3 make decisions. The U.S. courts are consists of much smaller juries and the judges have more power. However, the general view of a fair trial was the same for Athenian and American democracy. The Ancient Athenian government had a tremendous impact on democracies across
the country. Their early attempt for a fair and equal government was an inspiration to many people. The importance of citizenship and their role in government made a lasting impression on todays Modern American government.
The details disclosed that the prosecution highlighted the names of the potential black judges and tinted every black potential juror’s name in a different color. There were four different duplicates of the record of all of the individuals summoned for the task in the case. Evert record had a key, which indicated that the highlighted names represented the blacks. Besides, there were no any blotches made for the white jurors on the lists. There were also many marks made on the black people’s names on the juror questionnaires, and there was no any other race that was
In comparing the Ancient Athenian system of government, and the Modern Day American political system, there are many similarities. In Ancient Athens, democracy was developed in response to a long history of oppressive rulers who used their position of power for their own benefit. Ancient Athenians sought a government where all citizens were considered equal under the eyes of the law, and all had a fair say in the running of their country. Following a series
Ever since human civilization came into existence, people have been putting rules in place to determine who is behaving according to social norms and moral values and who is not. Because the majority of Western societies have historically been democratic, it makes sense that the public have a say in the enforcement of said rules. It is for this reason that the trial became a popular means of deciding upon punishment for those perceived to have broken the law, while also allowing them an opportunity to testify against their charges. Socrates underwent this process in 399 BC on charges of impiety and corruption of the youth of Athens , as did Louis Riel in 1885 on charges of treason for leading a Métis rebellion . Although they lived during vastly
Smith, William (1997) “Useful or Just Plain Unfair? The Debate Over Peremptories; Lawyers, Judges Spllit Over the Value of Jury Selection Method” The Legal Intelligencer, April 23: pg 1.
At trial, your life is in the palms of strangers who decide your fate to walk free or be sentenced and charged with a crime. Juries and judges are the main components of trials and differ at both the state and federal level. A respectable citizen selected for jury duty can determine whether the evidence presented was doubtfully valid enough to convict someone without full knowledge of the criminal justice system or the elements of a trial. In this paper, juries and their powers will be analyzed, relevant cases pertaining to jury nullification will be expanded and evaluated, the media’s part on juries discretion, and finally the instructions judges give or may not include for juries in the court. Introduction Juries are a vital object to the legal system and are prioritized as the most democratic element in our society, aside from voting, in our society today.
No one would deny that Pericles was the most prominent Greek statesman and spokesperson during the Golden Age. His contribution was largely felt during the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars having obtained power from his family link to the Alcmaeonid family. He commanded a lot of respect to from the Athenian citizens with Thucydides describing him as "the first citizen of Athens” . He was born at around 495 BC north of Athens in the ...
Today, juries are much more diverse. Men, women, and people from diverse backgrounds are called to jury duty. Although the origin of the jury system is not clear, history has shown that William the Conqueror from Normandy introduced a similar system to England around 1066 CE (Judiciary of Vermont 1). After the American Revolutionary War, the jury system became the American ideal of justice. This essay will explore the history of the American jury system and illustrate how it has evolved over the course of the American history.
The Athenian government was a democratic government, which means it was ruled by the people to vote and have a voice in society. The democracy was slowly formed by leaders Solon and Cleisthenes. Solon took over when Athens was in political turmoil. He introduced new reforms to forgive debts, outlaw new loans, free people that
Overall the legislative duties and responsibilities consist of declaring war, raise and support armies; provide and maintain a navy; regulate commerce; borrow and coin money; establish and collect t...
Our current trial by jury system was originally adopted from Anglo-Saxon English common law. Prior to juries, the United States had much more rudimentary methods that were in affect, such as bench trials. A bench trial consists of solely the judge determining the final verdict, versus a jury possessing that responsibility. Proceeding with a trial by jury assures that there will be a margin of error, simply due to the fact that the jurors are human, and are susceptible to human fallibility. Whether the jury is cognizant of it or not, emotions such as pre-determined bias and favoritism can impede or bring the case to a halt all together. According to Andy Leipold, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois College of Law, the number of jury trial conviction rates have increased from 75 percent in 1946 to 84 percent from 1989 to 2002 (Krause). This sudden anomaly can be attributed to the influx of uneducated jurors, the increased cost of proceeding to trial, and improper juror selection.
We must look at the facts and decide whether the American Jury System is still a good idea. How much is it costing us to pay for each individual to serve on the jury and does this out way the possible benefits that a jury system has in the court of law? The other important factor and feasible benefit of a bench trial is that there’s hardly any room for error. No one is perfect, but it’s a lot less likely that a judge would make a vital mistake impacting the rest of someone’s life versus twelve arbitrary citizens from the community. The United States court system shouldn’t allow any incompetency, unsupported bias, or negligence in the evaluation of cases. We must choose the system that is best for our increasing complex and refining society.
There are three different branches in the government, the executive branch, legislative branch, and the judicial branch. The Executive Branch which carries out or executes laws, basically the executive branch is the big guy so far the President, the commander in Chief and all those other names. He basically approves and carries out the laws that the legislative branch passes. Now we move on to the legislative branch. The legislative branch is made up of the two houses of Congress The House of Representatives and The Senate. The House and Senate’s most important job is to make the laws, these laws are discussed and voted on by Congress. Now onto the judicial branch, even though the executive branch and the legislative branch are voted on by
In the fifth-century BC, Athens emerged as one of the most advanced state or polis in all of Greece. This formation of Athenian ‘democracy’ holds the main principle that citizens should enjoy political equality in order to be free to rule and be ruled in turn. The word ‘democracy’ originates from the Greek words demos (meaning people) and kratos (meaning power) therefore demokratia means “the power of the people.” The famous funeral speech of Pericles states that “Our constitution is called democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people.” However, only citizens (free adult men of Athenian descent) could participate in political matters. Women and slaves held no political rights, although they were essential in order to free up time for the citizens to participate in the matters of the state. The development of Athenian democracy has been fundamental for the basis of modern political thinking, although many in modern society UK would be sceptical to call it a democracy. Plato and Aristotle in The Republic and The Politics respectively were critical of the Athenian democracy, by examining the culture and ideology present the limitations and possible downfalls of a democratic way of life. Within this essay I will outline these limitations and evaluate their validity.
Ancient Greece was made up of individual city states, known as a Polis, which relied heavily on citizen participation in politics. The idea of self-rule was an entirely new way of governing. Citizenship was unheard of at the time. Although still considered citizens not everybody was allowed to participate. In Athens only adult males who had military training were allowed to vote. The majority of the population, namely slaves, children, metics (free noncitizens) and women were excluded from participation in politics. “[Metics] and women were not citizens and did not enjoy any of the privileges of citizenship.”(Sayre, 137) Athenian citizens had to be descended from citizens, excluding the children of Athenian men and foreign women. Individuals could be granted citizenship in to Athens by the assembly this was usually as a reward for some service to the state. Ancient Greece paved the way for the representative democratic style of government that is practiced by many countries today. Much like how voting rights started out in America, originally only the wealthy land owners were allowed to vote and call themselves citizens, but soon all men were allowed to have a vote and a voice in their states politics. Essentially the Greeks were the first to introduce citizen rights and freedom similar to what’s seen today.