The Influence Of Cleisthenes Reforms

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Although the Athenian Revolution may offer valuable information, studying Cleisthenes’ reforms that occurred as a consequence would offer insight into what transpired before the reforms and ultimately set Athens on a democracy. First, Cleisthenes’ reforms downgraded the importance of aristocrats and gave more power to local government by reorganizing the political landscape of Athens, a task that would be essential in responding to the wishes of the people following the revolution. Indeed, faction fighting was rampant among the aristocratic families until the legislation of Cleisthenes. Although it has been argued that Cleisthenes tried to create a political advantage for his own family under the guise of political reorganization, his legislation …show more content…

Second, following Josiah Ober’s idea that the “mass action by the Athenian populace was essential in enabling Cleisthenes to bring forth a democratic order,” it may also be argued that this collective action by the people would propel the idea of egalitarian citizenship since a part of Cleisthenes’ reforms included merging aristocrats and ordinary people into new and different tribes. This may imply that differences in social classes played a defining role in Athenian society and aristocrats had more influence on legislation and governance that prompted the people to revolt in 508/507. Indeed, Cleisthenes widened the socioeconomic composition of the Boule, and non-nobles began to play a role in higher-level state administration. Thirdly, a comparison with Solon’s constitution shows that Cleisthenes’ democracy interacted more with the ordinary people, an element that Solon did not follow through …show more content…

Cleisthenes opposed this idea and his reforms transferred control over the question of exclusivity for membership from the aristocratic families to the demes where all free Athenians were now to register following the reforms. This allowed Cleisthenes to mix the population of Attica by dividing the region into ten phyle and encouraged the people to be loyal to their tribes rather than to the aristocratic families. Since members of the tribe would come from different parts of Attica, that meant someone in one town could not be intimidated by an aristocrat because he could now appeal to fellow tribesmen and the tribal assembly from another area for support. Now, they could appeal to people who were not under the control of oppressive nobles in an area because while they were all members of the same tribe now, they lived in different areas of Attica. Thus, they can champion the grievances of their fellow tribesmen elsewhere without fear of repression or negative consequence. Therefore, membership in a deme became the basis of political organization and all Athenians could enjoy equal status as citizens. Building on this system, Cleisthenes created assemblies for each tribe that decide matters while reporting to the Athenian assembly. This action gave

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