Models of obedience: how to make people obey the law

Protests are being staged against the proposed bill to change the laws on protest. But there is a bigger issue here. Obedience to the law is at the root of civil society, but what systems best achieve that end?

The ancients provided three models that underpin western thinking on the subject. The Athenian model was that of radical democracy, the law to be made by the majority of citizens (males aged over 18) meeting weekly in assembly and then publicly posted. Further, all male citizens over 30 were available to sit as jurors in the courts. No judges or official legal authorities controlled their decisions. Behind all this lay the unshakeable Athenian belief in the freedom and political equality of the individual citizen, whatever his wealth or power or social status, and his absolute right to self-government by majority rule. After all, if citizens made their own laws, they would surely be inclined to obey them.