Athenian Democracy

Athenian democracy was an amazing achievement in its time period that
introduced the concepts of “equal rights” and the notion of accountability by
routinely investigating officials and creating a system where no person or group could
become too powerful. The purpose of Athenian democracy or the real significance, was
to guarantee justice to the people of Athens, which was a revolutionary idea at the time.
The annual rotation of power, the sharing of power and the fact that “the people” took
part in the decision-making achieved the purpose of breaking the hold that the aristocrats
had on Athenian society. It created a model of government which has been improved
upon and twisted.
Athenian democracy and that is that it was a full time job because only people
with a lot of leisure time on their hands could devote the energy to the system. This
brings up the issue of slavery, because without slaves there would not have   been an
Athenian democracy, or at least not as we know it. The fact that even a relatively poor
Athenian citizen could still afford one slave to plow his fields or work in his shop while
he was debating laws in the assembly is what made a democracy of the people, or a free
Athenian-male-citizen rather. If only the rich had been able to afford the time to go to the
meetings then the laws would certainly be different, favoring the rich instead of
everyone. Slavery was an aspect that made democracy possible.