ABSTRACT
As originally practised in Ancient Greece, and in particular in Athens, democracy involved the direct participation of those with citizenship rights1 in the legislative process. Although democracy manifested itself in different forms in different citystates and at different periods, the classic period of Athenian democracy in the fourth century BC put direct democracy at the centre of the political order, in that the citizens’ assembly, the ekklesia, was the ultimate source of legal authority in the state. To what extent would it be either desirable or feasible to introduce an element of direct democracy into our modern Constitution? If we did do that, what form should direct participation take?
