The current Canadian legal system was highly influenced by ancient Athens democracy. The Athenian democracy was developed around the sixth century in the Greek City-state of Athens. This democracy comprised of the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica. It has been described as the first know democracy in the world that was emulated by other cities in setting up their legal structures.
The Athenian system was considered fair and democratic therefore directly affecting the people’s life. The Athenian system only allowed citizens to vote and hold positions, citizens, in this case, represented all males who were over the age of eighteen years and born by Athenian parents. The system excluded women, slaves and anyone else who was not considered a citizen. Everyone considered a citizen was allowed to participate (Cartwright, 2018) . There was no discrimination on financial situation or social standing, and therefore, people who held positions in the government were not voted on by other citizens but instead drawn by lot (Cartledge, 2011) . The democracy also demanded much time from the citizens meaning that any adult male who had the vote was required to stop the job they were doing and take up positions in authority on a rota system.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Apart from this, the selected citizens had to go to the Athenian Assembly regularly to vote on critical issues affecting society. All laws were voted upon and in the case that a council member was not doing a good job they were all allowed to choose to exile him for ten years. The assembly had different bodies, among this was a council that was composed of 500 citizens selected by a lot for one year, the main purpose of this council was to supervise any administrative committees and officials on behalf of the assembly. There also existed an executive committee which consisted of one tribe of the ten which participated in the council that is 50 citizens. These lot’s primary purpose was to safeguard the sacred treasuries.
The Ancient Athenian democracies share several similarities with the Canadian legal system. There are however clear differences between the two democracies such as Canada considers everyone born in the state a citizen and allows anyone above the age of eighteen to vote despite their gender. The laws in Canada are made by the government, and an official could be voted out in the next election. Despite this, it is clear that the historical Athens society influenced the current Canadian Laws. Canada practices representative democracy which gives each citizen the right to elect representatives at each governmental level. According to the Government of Canada (2019), the Canadian parliament is also divided into different parts, the monarch (Queen), the Senate and the House of Commons which serve different purposes. The ancient Athens believed in the power of democracy and equality; they valued people opinions and therefore shaped the modern society to what it is today. Another sketched similarity is the occurrence of regular meetings by people in authority to discuss political social and economic issues affecting the people, the same is seen in modern Canada in parliamentary meetings held to discuss national and international issues.
Despite the apparent differences between the ancient and modern democracies, the fact stands that democracy was born in the 5 TH Century B.C and most states derived their laws from these ancient practices. It is also clear that till to date no other form of government has been invented that can completely regulate public affairs better than democracy.
References
Cartledge, P. (2011, February 17). The Democratic Experiment. Retrieved April 23, 2019, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_01.shtml
Cartwright, M. (2018, April 3). Athenian Democracy. Retrieved April 23, 2019, from https://www.ancient.eu/Athenian_Democracy/
Government of Canada. (2019, April 10). Democracy in Canada. Retrieved April 23, 2019, from https://www.canada.ca/en/democratic-institutions/services/democracy-canada.html
