<P> Before the first attempt at democratic government, Athens was ruled by a series of archons or chief magistrates, and the Areopagus, made up of ex-archons . The members of these institutions were generally aristocrats, who ruled the polis for their own advantage . In 621 BC Draco codified a set of "notoriously harsh" laws that were "a clear expression of the power of the aristocracy over everybody else ." This did not stop the aristocratic families feuding amongst themselves to obtain as much power as possible . </P> <P> Therefore, by the 6th century BC, the majority of Athenians "had been' enslaved' to the rich", and they called upon Plato's ancestor Solon, premier archon at the time, to liberate them and halt the feuding of the aristocracy . However, the "enfranchisement of the local laboring classes was succeeded by the development of chattel slavery, the enslavement of, in large part, foreigners ." </P> <P> Solon, the mediator, reshaped the city "by absorbing the traditional aristocracy in a definition of citizenship which allotted a political function to every free resident of Attica . Athenians were not slaves but citizens, with the right, at the very least, to participate in the meetings of the assembly ." Under these reforms, the position of archon "was opened to all with certain property qualifications, and a Boule, a rival council of 400, was set up . The Areopagus, nevertheless, retained' guardianship of the laws"'. A major contribution to democracy was Solon's setting up of an Ecclesia or Assembly, which was open to all male citizens . However, "one must bear in mind that its agenda was apparently set entirely by the Council of 400", "consisting of 100 members from each of the four tribes", that had taken "over many of the powers which the Areopagos had previously exercised ." </P> <P> Not long afterwards, the nascent democracy was overthrown by the tyrant Peisistratos, but was reinstated after the expulsion of his son, Hippias, in 510 . This sort of aristocratic takeover "was ended by the appeal by one contender, Cleisthenes, for the support of the populace ." The reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 / 7 undermined the domination of the aristocratic families and connected every Athenian to the city's rule . "Cleisthenes fixed the boundaries of the polis as a political rather than a geographical entity--boundaries which Solon had left permeable--by formally identifying the free inhabitants of Attica at that time as Athenian citizens ." He did this by making the traditional tribes politically irrelevant and instituting ten new tribes, each made up of about three trytties, each consisting of several demes . "Every male citizen on reaching the age of 18 was now to be registered in his deme . It was this registration which confirmed his citizenship ." </P>

Who formed the assembly in greece which led to democracy