If you look back to the era of Athenian democracy, to the regime that developed in the city-state of ancient Athens, you will find that it was there that the most famous and perhaps the most important democracy of the ancient world prevailed.

Direct democracy

Athenian democracy employed the experiment of direct democracy. That is, citizens did not elect representatives as they do today. Instead, they made their own legislative and executive decisions. With one small detail: only Athenians who retained political rights participated in the decisions, not all citizens.

Who had the right to vote?

At Ancient Athens, only men had the right to participate and vote in the municipal assembly and that only if they had completed their military service, while women, settlers, and slaves were excluded. Also, those who were inconsistent with their financial debts to the town did not have the right to vote. In many cases, the deprivation of civil rights was even permanent or hereditary.

In Athens, however, the limits of minimum income or wealth that applied in the oligarchic cities of Ancient Greece did not apply.

The political bodies of the time were three. The Church, the House of Five Hundred, and the Courts of Justice.

All citizens participated in the decisions

Unlike modern parliamentary history, in Athenian democracy, the members of the community were not elected. It was participated in by all who had political rights whenever they wanted. It was a direct democracy and not representative as today's state of parliamentary democracy is.

In fact, any citizen over the age of 20 could not only participate in decision-making, but it was considered his duty.

The duties of the Church

The Church voted to start a war, while it had the right to grant citizenship to a foreigner - non-Athenian. It also elected certain officials, tried political crimes, and passed laws.

How the ancients voted

Votings were usually by raising hands, while officials usually judged the outcome by counting the number of raised hands with their eyes. Some important matters required the presence of at least 6,000 citizens at the polls.

In cases such as the granting of a civil right, at least 6,000 were required to attend. Ballots colored white and black for "yes" and "no" respectively were used for voting, and each citizen, in turn, threw them into a large jar, which was then broken for counting. Participation in the Municipal Assembly was voluntary.

Voting by voice

In Homer's time, voting was not secret, which was also the case in ancient Sparta, where voting was sometimes secret and sometimes open. (The open was by raising one's hand).

Later there were both open and secret votes. The open one was done by raising a hand after a roll call of the voters. The secret one was done with balls or ballots.