Isonomia

That Isonomia preceded Demokratia as the common name for popular government is reasonably clear from the Debate on Constitutions in Herodotus, III, 80 ff.1 The form of government here named Isonomia is "the rule of the masses 2 in contrast to both tyranny and oligarchy; it is identified in the most positive way by the characteristic devices of the democratic constitution: election by lot, the audit of public officials, the power of the assembly to discuss and decide all questions of public policy. The omission of the word, Demokratia, in this context can hardly be accidental...