Athenian Democracy: How It Worked, Who Was Excluded and Why It Still Matters

What was Athenian democracy?

Athenian democracy was the system by which the citizens of Athens governed their city-state, in different forms, from the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508/507 BCE until Macedon imposed a property qualification after the Lamian War in 322 BCE. The Greek word demokratia combines demos, the people, and kratos, power. Unlike modern representative democracies, it was largely direct: adult male citizens voted in person on war, peace, finance and law, and most offices were filled by lot rather than election.

Athens was not the only Greek democracy, and assemblies and councils that shared decisions existed in many earlier and contemporary societies, so it should not be called simply "the first democracy". It is, however, the best-documented ancient example, because Athenian historians, orators, philosophers and inscriptions describe how it worked and argued about whether it should.

From Solon to Cleisthenes and Ephialtes

In the early sixth century BCE Athens was torn by conflict between wealthy landowners and poorer farmers, some of whom had fallen into debt bondage. Solon, chosen as archon in 594 BCE, cancelled debts secured on the person, banned the enslavement of Athenians for debt and divided citizens into property classes that determined which offices they could hold. His reforms did not end strife: Peisistratus and his sons ruled as tyrants for much of the following half-century.

After the tyranny fell, Cleisthenes in 508/507 BCE reorganised the citizen body into ten new tribes, each mixing people from the city, the coast and the inland, and based political life on some 139 local districts called demes. He created the Council of 500, fifty members from each tribe. Ostracism, a vote to exile a leading citizen for ten years without loss of property, is attested from the 480s BCE. In 462/461 BCE Ephialtes stripped the aristocratic Areopagus council of most of its political powers, and Pericles introduced pay for jurors, which made it easier for poorer citizens to take part.

How it worked: Assembly, Council, courts and the lot

The Assembly (ekklesia) met on the Pnyx hill, in the fourth century about forty times a year. Any citizen could speak, and decisions were taken by a show of hands; some votes required a quorum of 6,000. The Council of 500, chosen each year by lot from citizens over thirty, prepared the Assembly's agenda and supervised officials, and a rotating committee of fifty kept the city's business running day and night.

Most of the roughly 700 annual magistrates were selected by lot and served for a year, under scrutiny before and after office. Positions that needed expertise, above all the ten generals (strategoi), were elected and could be re-elected, which is how Pericles led Athens for years. Large popular courts, with juries of several hundred citizens drawn from a pool of 6,000, judged both private disputes and political cases. Athenians saw the lot as a way to prevent the rich and well connected from monopolising power.

Who was excluded

Political rights belonged only to adult male citizens, a minority of the people living in Attica. Modern estimates of their number in the fifth century range from about 30,000 to 60,000. Women, even citizen women, could not vote or hold office. Metics, free foreigners resident in Athens, paid taxes and served in war without political rights. Pericles' citizenship law of 451/450 BCE restricted citizenship to those with an Athenian mother and father, narrowing the body further.

Athenian democracy also depended on slavery. Enslaved people, many of them captives or bought from outside Greece, worked in households, workshops, farms and the state silver mines at Laurion. Their number is uncertain, with modern estimates varying widely, but historians agree that the leisure to attend the Assembly and the courts rested partly on unfree labour.

Empire, war and critics

Democracy and empire grew together. After the Persian Wars, Athens led the Delian League against the Achaemenid Empire and gradually turned its allies into tribute-paying subjects; that income helped pay for the fleet, the rowers drawn from poorer citizens, and buildings such as the Parthenon. The Assembly could be harsh: it voted to kill or enslave the people of rebellious or neutral cities such as Melos in 416 BCE.

Defeat in the Peloponnesian War brought two oligarchic coups, in 411 and in 404 BCE under the Thirty, both soon overturned. The restored democracy tried and executed Socrates in 399 BCE. Critics such as Plato, Thucydides and the anonymous author known as the "Old Oligarch" argued that rule by the many was unstable or unjust. Fourth-century Athens, however, was a stable democracy with stronger legal checks until Macedonian power ended it.

Legacy: what modern democracy did and did not inherit

For most of history after antiquity, "democracy" was a term of criticism, often meaning mob rule. The framers of the United States constitution and many French revolutionaries preferred the language of republics and representation, and modern representative government owes as much to Roman, medieval and early modern institutions as to Athens. Only from the nineteenth century did Athens become a widely admired model.

Today Athens is cited both as an inspiration and as a warning. Its use of the lot has influenced modern citizens' assemblies, and its direct participation contrasts with voting for representatives. Its exclusions remind readers that the people who held power were a narrow group. Democratic ideas and practices have also developed independently in many other societies, and Athens is best understood as one important case rather than the single origin.

Frequently asked questions

Who could vote in Athenian democracy?

Only adult male citizens; scholars differ on whether they could attend the Assembly from eighteen or only from twenty. From 451/450 BCE citizenship required an Athenian father and mother. Women, resident foreigners (metics) and enslaved people, together the majority of Attica's population, had no vote.

Was Athens the first democracy?

Not in a simple sense. Other Greek cities had democratic constitutions, and many societies before and outside Greece made decisions in assemblies or councils. Athens is the best-documented ancient democracy and the one that gave us the word, which is why it dominates the story.

Why did the Athenians use a lottery to choose officials?

Selection by lot gave every eligible citizen an equal chance and made it hard for wealth, family or oratory to capture offices. Athenians associated elections with aristocracy, so they kept elections mainly for posts that needed skill, such as the generals.

How did Athenian democracy end?

After Athens lost the Lamian War against Macedon in 322 BCE, the Macedonian regent Antipater imposed a property qualification that removed most poorer citizens from political life. Democratic institutions were revived at times later, but under Hellenistic kings and then Rome.

Key events on the map

• 594 BCE · Solon's Reforms in Athens
• 508 BCE · Cleisthenes' Reforms and Athenian Democracy
• 478 BCE · Delian League Formed Against Persia
• 432 BCE · Parthenon Completed
• 431 BCE · Peloponnesian War Begins
• 411 BCE · Thucydides Writes History of the Peloponnesian War
• 399 BCE · Trial and Death of Socrates

Guided storylines

• Athens and the Polis: Citizens, Gods and Empire