Expert: Irulan Serena - 3/22/2004

Question
Hello, Irulan.

The history books credit the founding fathers of the United States with having invented the principle of the "Balance of Power" (Three branches of government--executive, legislative, and judicial) on the basis that if one brance got out of hand, the power of the other two combined would be enough to keep it in place.

I seem to recall however that the Athenian system was similarly based on a three-sided system and for the same purpose.

Can you advise?

Regards,
Dan O'Hanlon  

Answer
Hello Dan,

You are correct, the three branches of a Democratic government were first used in Athens. Matter of fact the word Democracy was first coined in Athens....it meant 'rule by the people'.

Withought going into an extensive explanation here it is in a nutshell:

Citizesn members of the Ecclesia [the public legislative assembly] could:

1  propose a law and the Ecclesia either accepted or rejected the proposed law = legislative branch

2  participated in courts of law, accuse / prosecute, defend, etc. = judicial branch

Leaders and advisers took care of the administrative end of the democracy = executive branch

History books have a tendency to write according to the times, focusing on what is important in the 'now' and forgetting the distant past [Greco-Roman culture an government] from which came a great part of our society including Court Systems, Goverment system, police system, and even the Social Security system [of course less convoluted than today].  

Cordially,

Irulan