How does the leadership of Pericles affect the government and culture of Athens?

Answer 1

As First Citizen after arranging the expulsion of opposition leader Thucydides son of Melesias, he manipulated the democracy, feeding them the spoils of the empire he created out of the redundant anti-Persian (Delian) league of a couple of hundred Greek cities, bringing the treasury from Delos to Athens. He continued to extort the annual defence contributions for Athens' private use, to rebuild and glorify the city, subsidise the arts and science, and put half the populace on the public payroll - effectively turning those other cities into an empire of Athens.

By fostering a hardline approach to Greek cities outside the empire he let/led Athens fall into war with the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League confident that the walls of Athens and the offensive fleet subsidised by the Delian League would enable Athens to outlast and overcome that opposition.

He died of plague three years into the ensuing war, and the leadership fell to opportunists who did not stick to his policies. We don't know whether, if he had lived, he could have avoided Athens' eventual defeat and loss of its empire.

Answer 2

He arranged the banishment of his opponents and introduced a radical democracy where the (male) met in fortnightly assembly. He then had to be ultra-persuasive to carry the assembly in his preferred direction, and for much of the time achieved this. He was also an effective war leader, which added to his influence, calling himself 'First Citizen'.

Answer 3

He expanded direct democracy to new classes of free men