What led to ancient Greece democracy?

Answer 1

Democracy basically started off in Athens during the Classical Period (c.478-336 BC) in the city state (Polis). Athenian democracy can be traced back to the reforms of Solon (584BC) who was a political leader and poet. When the people got sick of a monarchy, the aristocrats took over. The aristocrats were the rich group of people who provided money for such things as, weapons, supplies, or battlefields. They were close with the king and helped him make decisions. Eventually they thought they were better, and more powerful then the King. They took over and eventually made an Oligarchy, then a tyranny, and then, through time, created a democracy where citizens helped decided they wanted to govern themselves. It was different back then though, only free men could become citizens. Women, children, and slaves did all the work at home. Although, they influenced how we vote for our leaders, and how they have a four year term.

Answer 2

Democracy arose in some of the Greek city-states because the people tired of being exploited by the aristocracy, so they tried out tyranny to have a friendly ruler who would control the aristocrats, and then moved on to democracy (people power - demos = the people, kratos = power) to try ruling themselves. Democracy had great weaknesses and failures as exploiters manipulated it as is done today, and they tended to revert to a more limited forms of people power, or returned kings and tyrants as the lesser of evils.