Jury service means an ordinary citizen is directly participating in government, not watching it. When citizens vote in an election, they elect someone else to participate in government for them. The difference is significant. Jurors have a unique role to play in the direction that our country goes legally, politically, socially, and economically. Jury verdicts, over a period of time, develop our common law.
Juries are part of the fabric of our American way of life.
They represent rule by common citizens rather than by some elite ruling class. Juries are as much a part of our court system as are judges and lawyers. The rich and the powerful are afraid of juries. No other nation makes such a complete affirmation of faith in its citizens as America does with its jury system. Nothing else brings home the uniqueness of being an American in quite the same way.