ABSTRACT
The democratic nations of Western Europe are the product of a multisecular history whose uniqueness never ceases to arouse the wonder of sociologists. The modern democratic nation inherited not only its institutions, but also the very idea of political society and the values of democracy which were elaborated by the Athenians and reinterpreted in the Roman Empire. The Greeks "invented" the concept of the political in the sense of an autonomous domain of social life. The Greeks also invented the principle of the rule of law. Their contemporaries were of one mind as to the need to recognize the true polis in that it was governed by laws and not by men. The laws of the City were the only master that confronted the citizen. Greeks also formulated the values of liberty and equality, which formed the basis for modern democratic thought. Transcendence by the political assumed different historical forms.
