Democracy In Ancient Greek Democracy

What is democracy? Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Democracies are based on "rule of law." The Ancient Greeks particularly Aristotle valued natural law, the notion that human societies should be governed by ethical principles found in nature (ushistory.org). Athens had an extraordinary system of government. A form of direct democracy in ancient Greece was practiced in the ancient city-state of Athens for about 100 years. This was only an experiment at first. How this form of democracy worked is that all adult citizens had to take an active part in government, ruled by many, if called on to do so. At this time of democracy citizens

He introduced political reform Demokratia or “rule by the people.’ This included three separate institutions: Ekklesia, Boule, and Dikasteria. Ekklesia or assembly is the sovereign governing body of Athens. Any member of the 40,000 adult male citizens were welcome to attend the meetings of the Ekklesia, which were held 40 times a year in a hillside auditorium west of the Acropolis called the Pnyx. Usually only 5,000 men attended each session of the Assembly. The others were serving in the army or navy or working to support their families. These guys made plans about wars and foreign policy, wrote and revised laws, and approved or condemned the conduct of public officials. They made decisions by majority

There were more than 500 jurors chosen by lot from a pool of male citizens older than thirty. Out of all the democratic institutions, Aristotle argued that the Dikasteria contributed most to the strength of democracy because the jury had almost unlimited power. Athens did not have any police, so the demos brought the court cases, argued for the prosecution and the defense, and delivered verdicts and sentences by majority rule. In Athens there were no laws dictating about what kinds of cases could be prosecuted or what could and could not be said at trial, so Athenian citizens used Dikasteria to punish or embarrass their enemies. The jurors were paid a wage for their work, so anyone could participate and not just the wealthy. Jurors were usually made up of elderly retirees. Athenians never paid taxes so the money they earned came from customs duties, contributions from allies, and taxes levied on the metoikoi. Metoikoi, or the metics are immigrant foreigners who lived in a Greek city without possessing rights of citizenship (Cartledge, 2006). There was one exception, the liturgy which, was a kind of tax that wealthy people volunteered to pay to sponsor major civic undertakings such as the maintenance of navy ships or production of a play or choral performance at the city’s annual festival. These three branches of Athenian government were one of ancient Greece’s most enduring contributions to the