<P> Athenian democracy was not only direct in the sense that decisions were made by the assembled people, but also the most direct in the sense that the people through the assembly, boule and courts of law controlled the entire political process and a large proportion of citizens were involved constantly in the public business . Even though the rights of the individual were not secured by the Athenian constitution in the modern sense (the ancient Greeks had no word for "rights"), the Athenians enjoyed their liberties not in opposition to the government but by living in a city that was not subject to another power and by not being subjects themselves to the rule of another person . </P> <P> Range voting appeared in Sparta as early as 700 BC . The Apella was an assembly of the people, held once a month, in which every male citizen of at least 30 years of age could participate . In the Apella, Spartans elected leaders and cast votes by range voting and shouting . Aristotle called this "childish", as compared with the stone voting ballots used by the Athenians . Sparta adopted it because of its simplicity, and to prevent any bias voting, buying, or cheating that was predominant in the early democratic elections . </P> <P> Even though the Roman Republic contributed significantly to many aspects of democracy, only a minority of Romans were citizens with votes in elections for representatives . The votes of the powerful were given more weight through a system of gerrymandering, so most high officials, including members of the Senate, came from a few wealthy and noble families . In addition, the Roman Republic was the first government in the western world to have a Republic as a nation - state, although it didn't have much of a democracy . The Romans invented the concept of classics and many works from Ancient Greece were preserved . Additionally, the Roman model of governance inspired many political thinkers over the centuries, and today's modern representative democracies imitate more the Roman than the Greek models because it was a state in which supreme power was held by the people and their elected representatives, and which had an elected or nominated leader . Other cultures, such as the Iroquois Nation in the Americas between around 1450 and 1600 AD also developed a form of democratic society before they came in contact with the Europeans . This indicates that forms of democracy may have been invented in other societies around the world . </P> <P> During the Middle Ages, there were various systems involving elections or assemblies, although often only involving a small part of the population . These included: </P>

Identify how roman laws influenced the development of democracy
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