Democracy is Good

Democracy is Good

Introduction

Ancient Greece had the most modern form of democracy in ancient times. All the people participated in discussing and formulating policies for Greece. Also, Greece had elected representatives that had to finance and implement the policies. There were also courts to conduct trials for those perceived as going against the law. Below are some characteristics of democracy in ancient Greece.

Golden Rule

Early in the semester, we discussed the Golden Rule tying it to Tolerant and Human Rights. How in the Bible it is depicted as do to others what you want them to do to you. In Ancient Egypt, it was stated that which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another.” In Greece, the golden rule was observed by the rule of law. Any breaking of the law was punishable by the law itself, which had been formulated by the people. For instance, any government figure involved in corruption was sentenced by the popular courts. Also, the majority of the laws were made by the people in the assemblies who were ordinary citizens (Tridimas, 2017). Such laws and courts brought by democracy in Greece helped maintain social order in the nation.

Participation

In Greece, all citizens participated in governance. The assemblies were open to all, and at some time, citizens started paying for attendance to assemblies to motivate them to attend and contribute in decision making.  Governance was open to all, and Greece lived by the mantra of “we are unique in the way we regard anyone who takes no part in public affairs: we do not call that quiet life, we call it a useless life.”.

The assemblies meet many times in a year, starting with ten meetings, and as time progressed, they reached forty meetings per year. Also, Greece had popular courts, made of elected individuals, who had to sentence any general and political leaders for treason and corruption (Tridimas, 2017). Also, there were elections to select generals who served as military head, envoys, and finance officers. This helped establish government structures that helped the citizens.

After the citizens voted for the policies they wanted, the public office holders were left to implement the strategies (Tridimas, 2017). Frequent voting in Greece allowed for the implementation of policies since the public office holder could be elected out of office in the next elections, which were not far away from each other.

Informed Policy

In ancient Greece, assembly meetings were held in the auditorium, which would house thousands of individuals. There were laws and decrees in Greece, with laws being amended by the legislatures n the assembly. Decrees, on the other hand, were passed directly by the assembly and had to be within the law. This implies that common people were involved in policymaking in ancient Greece. The primary role of the assembly at this time was to pass policies in Athens (Tridimas, 2017).

After some time, Athens citizens started paying for attendance to the assembly. Such a decision was motivated by the fact that more people were required to vote for policies affecting them. The payment served as an incentive to attend and participate in policymaking (Tridimas, 2017).

In addition to paying to attend the assembly, the assembly meeting was increased in frequency. This gave people adequate time to discuss and vote on policies. Also, frequent assemblies increased the number of policies that the assembly could address and pass.

Since the citizens were a member of assemblies, they had to choose the policies that worked for them and removed the ones that never worked. Some policies were made by elected officials who served as generals. For example, financial policies were made by the treasurer of the military fund, members of the board of Theoric fund, and the controller of finances.

In conclusion, with citizens being involved in policymaking and electing their representatives, a great democratic nation can prosper due to social order and structures brought by democratic space in the society. Democracy also helped in removing bad governance when involved in corruption and treason during those days.