| In Athens, the world's first democracy developed. | | | | accused had to be proven guilty before being |
| The word democracy comes from the Greek | | | | punished. Overall, the code helped Athens develop |
| words, demos and kratia, meaning literally, "the | | | | a government based on written laws. |
| people rule." A democracy, then, is a government | | | | Solon, an Athenian ruler in about 594 B.C, also |
| in which citizens rule themselves. Athenian | | | | moved the city-state closer to democracy. Solon |
| democracy inspired those who founded America's | | | | made Draco's laws less harsh. He wrote economic |
| democracy as well as many other people around | | | | and social reforms into law and ended the practice |
| the world. | | | | of enslaving those who failed to pay their debts. |
| Athenian democracy took shape slowly. Around | | | | Solon also created a court for all citizens and gave |
| 620 B.C, the Athenian ruler Draco tried to make | | | | all citizens the right to vote. However, citizenship |
| reforms in the city-state. Draco organized laws by | | | | was quite limited. Women and slaves could not be |
| putting them down in a written code. Draco's | | | | citizens. Only men who were born in and lived in a |
| code let people know exactly what the laws were | | | | city-state could be citizens. Altogether, only slightly |
| and that they applied to all. The code also | | | | more than half of the male population of Athens |
| explained the harsh penalties for people who | | | | were citizens. At the same time, only citizens |
| broke the laws. In addition, it gave a person | | | | could be members of the assembly that |
| accused of murder the right to a trial. The | | | | approved decisions made by the government. |