Citizens and inhabitants
Classical Athens distinguished its citizen body from the entire resident population. Adult male citizens could attend the assembly, whereas women, resident foreigners and enslaved people lacked equivalent political participation. Counting inhabitants therefore does not measure the number of eligible speakers or voters; status and registration mattered.
Assembly, council and courts
The assembly debated war, diplomacy and public business. The Council of Five Hundred prepared business and conducted administrative work, while citizen courts heard cases. Selection by lot and rotation widened access to many offices; other posts used election. These arrangements differ from a modern parliamentary system.
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Equality through political procedures
Political equality within the citizen body took institutional form through speech, voting, officeholding and scrutiny. Wealth, persuasive skill and military circumstances still shaped participation. Meetings required places, preparation and attendance. Oligarchic interruptions and subsequent restorations show that democracy was a contested arrangement rather than an unchanging civic possession.
Ancient and later democracies
Aristotle compared constitutions by who ruled and whose advantage they served, showing that democracy was already disputed in antiquity. Later representative institutions and expanded suffrage cannot be projected backward onto Athens. Its direct participation and its exclusions belong to the same historical account.