Athenian democracy

democratic government in the ancient Greek city-state of Athens (forerunner of modern democracy)

this article is about the system of government of democratic Athens. See Athens (polis) for the state itself. Athenian democracy (sometimes called Direct democracy) developed in the Greek city-state of Athens. (comprising the central city-state of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica). Athens was one of the very first known democracies and probably the most important in ancient times. Other Greek cities set up democracies, most but not all following an Athenian model, but none were as powerful or as stable (or as well-documented) as that of Athens. It remains a unique and intriguing experiment in direct democracy where the people do not elect representatives to vote on their behalf but vote on legislation and executive bills in their own right. Participation was by no means open to all inhabitants of Attica, but the in-group of participants was constituted with no reference to economic class and they participated on a scale that was truly phenomenal. Never before had so many people spent so much of their time in governing themselves.
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