One of the most important changes in Greece during the period from 800 B.C. to 500 B.C. was the rise of the polis, or city-state, and each polis developed a system of government that was appropriate to its circumstances. The problems that were faced and solved in Athens were the sharing of political power between the established aristocracy and the emerging other classes, and the adjustment of aristocratic ways of life to the ways of life of the new polis. It was the harmonious blending of all of these elements that was to produce the classical culture of Athens.

Entering the polis age, Athens had the traditional institutions of other Greek protodemocratic states: an assembly of adult males, an aristocratic council, and annually elected officials. Within this traditional framework the Athenians, between 600 B.C. and 450 B. C., evolved what Greeks regarded as a fully fledged democratic constitution, though the right to vote was given to fewer groups of people than is seen in modem times.

The first steps toward change were taken by Solon in 594 B. C., when he broke the aristocracy's stranglehold on elected offices by establishing wealth rather than birth as the basis of office holding, abolishing the economic obligations of ordinary Athenians to the aristocracy, and allowing the assembly (of which all citizens were equal members) to overrule the decisions of local courts in certain cases. The strength of the Athenian aristocracy was further weakened during the rest of the century by the rise of a type of government known as a tyranny, which is a form of interim rule by a popular strongman (not rule by a ruthless dictator as the modern use of the term suggests to us). The Peisistratids, as the succession of tyrants were called (after the founder of the dynasty, Peisistratos), strengthened Athenian central administration at the expense of the aristocracy by appointing judges throughout the region, producing Athens’ first national coinage, and adding and embellishing festivals that tended to focus attention on Athens rather than on local villages of the surrounding region. By the end of the century, the time was ripe for more change: the tyrants were driven out, and in 508 B C a new reformer, Cleisthenes, gave final form to the developments reducing aristocratic control already under way.

Cleisthenes' principal contribution to the creation of democracy at Athens was to complete the long process of weakening family and clan structures, especially among the aristocrats, and to set in their place locality-based corporations called demes, which became the point of entry for all civic and most religious life in Athens. Out of the demes were created 10 artificial tribes of roughly equal population. From the demes, by either election or selection, came 500 members of a new council, 6,000 jurors for the courts, 10 generals, and hundreds of commissioners. The assembly was sovereign in all matters but in practice delegated its power to subordinate bodies such as the council, which prepared the agenda for the meetings of the assembly, and courts, which took care of most judicial matters. Various committees acted as an executive branch, implementing policies of the assembly and supervising, for instance, the food and water supplies and public buildings. This wide-scale participation by the citizenry in the government distinguished the democratic form of the Athenian polis from other, less liberal forms.

The effect of Cleisthenes’ reforms was to establish the superiority of the Athenian community as a whole over local institutions without destroying them. National politics rather than local or deme politics became the focal point. At the same time, entry into national politics began at the deme level and gave local loyalty a new focus: Athens itself. Over the next two centuries the implications of Cleisthenes’ reforms were fully exploited.

During the fifth century B. C. the council of 500 was extremely influential in shaping policy. In the next century, however, it was the mature assembly that took on decision-making responsibility. By any measure other than that of the aristocrats, who had been upstaged by the supposedly inferior "people," the Athenian democracy was a stunning success. Never before, or since, have so many people been involved in the serious business of self-governance. It was precisely this opportunity to participate in public life that provided a stimulus for the brilliant unfolding of classical Greek culture.



One of the most important changes in Greece during the period from 800 B.C. to 500 B.C. was the rise of the polis, or city-state, and each polis developed a system of government that was appropriate to its circumstances. The problems that were faced and solved in Athens were the sharing of political power between the established aristocracy and the emerging other classes, and the adjustment of aristocratic ways of life to the ways of life of the new polis. It was the harmonious blending of all of these elements that was to produce the classical culture of Athens.

从公元前800年到公元前500年，希腊最重要的变化之一是城邦的兴起，或者说城市的兴起。每个城邦也都形成了适合自身情况的政府制度。已存在的雅典贵族和新兴的其他阶层之间的政治权力分享，以及贵族们为适应新的城邦生活所做的调整，这些就是当时雅典所面对并解决了的问题。所有这些元素的和谐融合，造就了雅典的古典文化。

进入城邦时代后，雅典有着其他希腊各州的传统组织，这些州是民主机构的原型：包括一个成年男性公民大会，一个贵族委员会，以及每年选出的官员。公元前600年到公元前450年之间，雅典人从这个传统框架中发展出一个希腊人认为完全成熟的民主宪法，尽管享有投票权的人群并没有现在的人多。

梭伦在公元前594年发起了改革的第一步。他打破了贵族对选举的束缚，将任职资格建立在财富而不是血统上，废除普通雅典民众对贵族的经济义务，并允许公民大会（其中所有公民都是平等的成员）在某些情况下驳回地方法院的决定。在公元前6世纪剩余的时间里，专制政府的兴起进一步削弱了雅典贵族的实力。专制政府指的是政府被一个铁腕人物暂时管理（不是我们现在意义上所说的由一个无情的独裁者统治）。庇西特拉替德，作为铁腕人物的继承者（由王朝创始人庇西特拉图而来），不惜牺牲雅典贵族的权利，加强了中央政府管理，在所有地区任命法官，创建雅典第一套国家货币制度，并且对于关注雅典，而非周边地区当地村庄的节日，增加数量并且注重装饰。到世纪末，改革时机更为成熟时，铁腕人物被驱逐，并在公元前508年，新的改革者克利斯提尼最终减少了贵族的控制。

克利斯提尼对于创造雅典民主的主要贡献，是他完成了弱化家族和宗族结构（尤其是贵族家族和宗族结构）的漫长历程，并且在他们所在地方设置基于位置的团体——称为群落，这成为了雅典所有公民和大多数宗教生活的切入点。群落外面还建有10个人口数量相当的人工部落。群落中，通过选举或评选产生一个由500名成员组成的新理事会，6000名法庭陪审员，10位将军，数百名委员。公民大会在所有问题上都是至高无上的，但在实际中其权力下放给了下属机构，如理事会为公民大会的会议制定会议议程，而法庭则是处理大多数司法事务的。各委员会作为一个执行部门，负责实施公民大会的各项政策，并监督诸如食品、供水和公共建筑的事情。这种公民大范围参与的政府，使得雅典城邦的民主形式与其他没那么自由的民主形式截然不同。

克利斯提尼改革的效果是使得雅典社会作为一个整体，比当地组织更优越但却没有摧毁它们。国家政治而非局部或群落政治成为了焦点。同时，群落层面也开始进入国家政治，国家政治也使得当地的忠诚转向了雅典本身。在接下来的两个世纪里，克利斯提尼改革的影响得到了充分利用。
在公元前第五世纪，这个500人的理事会在制定政策时影响极大。然而，在接下来的一个世纪，成熟的公民大会承担了决策制定的责任。除了那些被所谓的“下等人”抢了风头的贵族，雅典的民主政治无论以什么标准来衡量都可以说是惊人的成功。如此多的人参与了真正意义上的自我管理，可谓前无古人，后无来者。正是这种参与公共生活的机会激励了希腊古典文化开始走向辉煌。