<P> Whether the democratic failures should be seen as systemic, or as a product of the extreme conditions of the Peloponnesian war, there does seem to have been a move toward correction . A new version of democracy was established from 403 BC, but it can be linked with both earlier and subsequent reforms (graphē paranómōn 416 BC; end of assembly trials 355 BC). For instance, the system of nomothesia was introduced . In this: </P> <P> A new law might be proposed by any citizen . Any proposal to modify an existing law had to be accompanied by a proposed replacement law . The citizen making the proposal had to publish it (in) advance: publication consisted of writing the proposal on a whitened board located next to the statues of the Eponymous Heroes in the agora . The proposal would be considered by the Council, and would be placed on the agenda of the Assembly in the form of a motion . If the Assembly voted in favor of the proposed change, the proposal would be referred for further consideration by a group of citizens called nomothetai (literally "establishers of the law"). </P> <P> Increasingly, responsibility was shifted from the assembly to the courts, with laws being made by jurors and all assembly decisions becoming reviewable by courts . That is to say, the mass meeting of all citizens lost some ground to gatherings of a thousand or so which were under oath, and with more time to focus on just one matter (though never more than a day). One downside was that the new democracy was less capable of rapid response . </P> <P> Another tack of criticism is to notice the disquieting links between democracy and a number of less than appealing features of Athenian life . Although democracy predated Athenian imperialism by over thirty years, they are sometimes associated with each other . For much of the 5th century at least democracy fed off an empire of subject states . Thucydides the son of Milesias (not the historian), an aristocrat, stood in opposition to these policies, for which he was ostracised in 443 BC . </P>

Who made the laws in the athenian government