As in other city-states, in the 7th century BC Athens was controlled by a small group of wealthy families. Unsurprisingly, the social unrest in the Greek world discussed above occurred in Athens as well. A precipitating event took place in 632 BC. Cylon, a nobleman, attempted to establish a tyranny.

Given the changes outlined previously, the centralized aristocracy system came under significant pressure for changes in the structure of power and societal administration. As is often the case with those holding entrenched power, the aristocracy did not respond well.

There is some evidence that by the middle of the 7th century BC, the polis had developed into a more formally organized system and the hereditary aristocracy was well developed and closely intermingled. However, near the end of the 7th century and the early 6th century, an era of revolutionary upheaval

Democracy has been described as “one of the rarest, most delicate, and fragile flowers in the jungle of human experience”(Donald Kagan, Pericles). “It has been a fleeting phenomenon in the history of government and has lain outside the experience of the vast majority of the peoples of the world down the ages.

Democracy is both a theory - a set of ideas and principles, and, a collective form of self-determination expressed as practices and structures.

The following begins a series of posts outlining and discussing the initial development of Democracy.