First+Democracy

Athens
One of the first known democracies was Athens, created in the fifth century B.C. But before becoming a democracy many were the changes that the government made. First Athens was ruled as a Monarchy, which means that was ruled by a King or Queen. Since the monach had to much power and the population coulnd't give their opinion about anything, this kind of government failed. Then they tried the tyranny, in which the soldiers were the ones that had absolute power over the city. This new type of government was better than the democracy, but people also thought that they could improve it. Around 800 BC, the Athenians created the oligarchy, " the government of the people", but it wasn't also perfect. Only the ones that had money and land could be represented by the government. Since it was really unfair for the non wealthy people, Democracy later become the new type of government, thanks to the contribution of Salon ( 594 BC), Cleisthenes ( 508 BC) and Ephialtes of Athens ( 462 BC) in which the citizens made their own laws, even if they weren't rich.

Salon (594 BC) : He created new reforms that balanced the law to a more realistic and practical level, rather than creating many unworkable ideas.He also created the People's Court and people's Assembly. Cleisthenes ( 508 BC) : He organized citizens into ten tribes according to their area of residence, he had led to the tyranny, and established legislative bodys run by the individuals chosen by lot. Ephialtes ( 462 BC) : he passed a law named Ecclesia, which reforms the Areopagus, limiting its power to judge cases of homicede and religious crimes.

Before Athens, many others Greek cities set up democracies but since they weren't as poweful as Athens, they failed. Athens democracy was many times called Direct Democracy, which means that the people as a whole can make direct decisios, rather than have those decisions made for them by elected representatives. In Athens the Assembly was usually composed of 5,000 to 6,000 members, resctrited to only all male adult cizitens, which means that all women, slaves and foreigners were excluded. In this city all the decisions that were made by the Assembly were decided without any legal restrictions. For example, if a robber had to go to trial in order to make him/her guilty or not, it were the 501 citizens ( the Assembly) that had the power to choose by majority vote. Since there was no system of representation, to be a member of the Assembly people had to do their best in order to catch people's attention, for example going to a rocky hillside and speak really laud so that the whole population could heard it. Of course, for those who where well-know, their chances to be listened and have more votes were greater. This kind of government was also really simple. It didn't have a president, a cabinet, prime minister or even a civil service.