Athens is widely regarded as the birthplace of democracy. In the late sixth and fifth centuries BCE, reforms in the Athenian polis created a system in which eligible male citizens could participate directly in public decision-making.
Cleisthenes introduced major reforms around 508 BCE, reorganizing citizens into new tribes and weakening the power of old aristocratic groupings. The Athenian Assembly allowed citizens to debate and vote on laws, war, and public policy. Many offices were assigned by lot, while some positions were elected.
Athenian democracy was not universal in the modern sense. Women, enslaved people, foreigners, and children were excluded from citizenship. The system also differed from representative democracies, because citizens commonly voted on issues themselves. Despite these limits, Athens established political ideas and institutions that strongly influenced later democratic thought.