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It was a direct democracy - no members of parliament to distort the public will. Decisions were made by the whole people in assembly, meting fortnightly. The council put matters before them, executed their decisions, and administered routine business between meetings.

In the law courts there were no judges and lawyers to muddy the waters. Large juries of several hundred decided on both guilt and punishment. The large juries were in effect equivalent to a modern opinion poll of what the citizens thought right.

All adult males were eligible to carry any political or public office (except generals, who were selected on ability for obvious self-protection reasons). The difference in ability of individuals was camouflaged/evened out by having panels of ten filling each office, in the expectation that at least one would have common sense. And it spread the money around, with half the populace on the public payroll.

All adult males served in the army and navy, meeting their mutual responsibility to protect themselves and the state.

It existed best when Athens had an empire it had made out of harnessing the other cities of the anti-Persian league and extorting money from them, which it used for its own benefit. This enabled the large numbers on the public payroll without crippling taxes.

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