¶ … Ancient Greeks It is generally well-known around the world -- at least in Western society -- that the ancient Greeks are noted for having launched the system of democracy. At the very lease the ancient Greeks started a kind of democratic system that later was more fully developed. There were other contributions by the ancient Greeks, and they will be presented in this paper.

Democracy

An article in the website for the History Channel (History.com) reports that in Athens during the middle of the 4th century there were 100,000 citizens, about 10,000 "resident foreigners," and an estimated 150,000 slaves. And not everyone was able to vote and participate in the democratic process; in fact only males who were 18 years or older could participate in democracy in that beginning period. So, of the approximately 260,000 people living in Athens at that time, just 40,000 were allowed to be part of the emerging democratic system.

The Ekklesia was the Assembly in Athens; if you were among the 40,000 lucky enough to be able to participate in democracy, you could attend...

These meetings were held 40 times each year in a hillside auditorium near the Acropolis. Decisions were made during these democratic sessions and they mostly involved "war and foreign policy" -- but also the conduct of public officials was a subject covered in the Assembly.
Another innovation in democracy in ancient Greece was The Boule -- a group of 500 men, fifty from each of the ten Athenian tribes, the History.com site explains. Unlike the Ekklesia, the Boule group met daily in order to "…supervise government workers" and supervise the military (ships in the navy and army horses) (History.com). The third democratic institution in ancient Greece was the Dikasteria, which was the court system. There were 500 jurors (all older than 30 years) and they delivered their verdicts according to democratic (majority rule) principles. Aristotle said the Dikasteria "…contributed most to the strength of democracy" because the jurors had "almost unlimited power"; and since there were no police in Athens, so the 40,000 males mentioned earlier could bring an accused person…