The standards we place upon democracy today can not be said for classical Athens during its time. Inequalities among the rich and poor, the elite and common put huge wedges between modern and past ideologies of democracy. Philosophers and politicians have helped to light the flaws of what was thought of as democracy during classical Athens. It could not be considered a democracy as we see it in the United States.
The ten treasures of the Delian league were accused of stealing money. They were tried and executed one by one until they found the accounting error and the remaining treasurer was released of all charges. This type of process wouldn't be seen today as being democratic. This shows a reckless and unchecked system favoring the elite and rich. In 406 BC, after years of defeats in the wake of the annihilation of their vast invasion force in Sicily. Athenians, at last, won a naval victory at Arginusae over the Spartans (A long account in Book: Xenophon Hellenica).
The generals in command failed to retrieve the survivors due to a storm that made it impractical. According to Athenian law, the Athenians tried six of the eight generals, which was illegal rather than one by one. Socrates, being part of the assembly, chose not to partake in the sentencing. He spoke against the unlawful judgment for the six treasures put to death. Later the Athenians waived the executions and proceeded to execute the people that judged the generals from the beginning.
Another big issue was Athenian hegemony and the negative side to its great success from 448-430 B.C. There was a great deal of slavery to tend to the silver mines, shops, and crewmen. Moreover, the responsibility the Athenians faced, gave way for corruption and unlawful actions to take place. With it, came the question, " Was democracy built on slavery ?" and is it a valid question by our standards today. Even the poor had a few slaves, so in no way were slaves equated with wealth, in turn, women weren't valued very highly.
Spartan women were valued higher and even competed in physical competitions. Spartan women could own property in their own right, outright. In Athens women could not do the same; they had to have a male counterpart to be the women's guardian per se. Women remained forbidden to participate in politics, at the same time men didn't consider women's contributions very high in assemblies. In ancient sources, reports say Athenian women had remained strong in their voices to be heard and engaged in public policy that affected the city-states as a whole. Many women kept to tradition in expressing their arguments, but in subtle fashion through their husbands, children, and relatives.
Only male citizens could vote and it excluded women, slaves, and non-citizens. It was later subjective to have citizenship granted if married to a citizen woman of Athens, which in turn gave higher value to women in the aspect of granting citizenship to later attain voting rights and ownership in the city-state.
Slaves were bought and traded and at times bred within the household; cases where children were taken by slave owners' wives to pass as their own, due to the pressure of having a son to care for the family name. As the commercial growth in Athenians increased the demand for slaves increased, manual labor was greatly needed. Some unwanted newborns who were then abandoned would've been taken in by others as slaves, this was called infant exposure. The population of the Athenian
The city-state was roughly 250,000 during Pericles's time and of that subtle 100,000 were made up of slaves.
Although the metrics didn't have any direct political influence, many were wealthy and in turn had created some influence over their workers to attend meetings, to have time off, and prevent them from attaining wealth during their work life.
Philosophers like Socrates and Plato shed light on the downfall of the peoples' morals and spoke on how the morals could save them from making evil decisions and keep corruption out of the democratic process. In 399 B.C Socrates was put on trial and executed for corrupting the young. He gave a new way of thinking and challenged the traditional practices among the Athenian people and in turn, the political process exposed its oppression towards new thinkers. It gave Greeks its first intellectual hero and martyr, it also tagged it with bad press and created enemies of democracy like Plato.
