When did Athene's become a democracy?

Answer 1

The beginnings came in the late 6th Century BCE with the overthrow of the Peisistratid tyrants. Subsequently a limited democracy was established with a property qualificiction. By the middle of the 5th Century all male citizens, regardless of their status, were entitled to vote. They did this at the twice-a-month assemblies which determined on laws and directed major policies. So democracy started after the overthrow of the tyrant Hippias and it developed to its peak as a direct democracy under the guidance of First Citizen Pericles in the second half of the 5th Century BCE. It was different from democracy as we know it today, as women couldn't vote, and it was direct, ie citizens voted directly in an assembly which all could attend, rather than electing representatives to vote for them in a parliament. And the law courts were manned by large juries selected by lot rather than judges. So it was less democratic in some ways (no women) but more democratic in others (direct voting, legal cases out of the hands of hired mouthpieces and decided directly by citizens).