Athenian Democracy Research Paper

Democracy was very important in ancient Greece because it gave citizens the opportunity to be involved in government decisions, allowed freedom of speech, equal rights, and eliminated the possibility of a ruler becoming too powerful. Most free men were able to vote and actively be a part of government but this did exclude women, children, and slaves. Cleisthenes who was a lawgiver in ancient Athens is credited to reforming Athens from an oligarchy (government by the few) to a democracy (government of the people). Historians refer to him as the “the father of Athenian democracy.”
Under Athens democracy there was an assembly or ecclesia that would meet four times a month and they discussed issues such as deciding military and financial magistracies, organizing and maintain food supply, initiating legislation and political trials, deciding to send envoys, deciding whether or not to sign treaties, voting to raise or spend funds, and debating military matters. This assembly had the power to ostracize a citizen who had become too powerful and dangerous for the polis. The assembly would write the name of the person they wanted banished on a piece of pottery. The person with the majority of votes was exiled from Athens for ten years but he did not
The government’s purpose was to guarantee justice for the people of Athens which was a revolutionary idea at the time. The rotation of power, the sharing of power and the fact the people took part in the decision-making achieved the purpose of breaking the hold that the aristocrats had on Athenian society. Athens was not able to retain democracy as its form of government because the Macedonians occupied Athens and installed an aristocratic government. Thus, ending democracy and the Hellenic phase of Greek