Trace the reforms of Solon and Cleisthenes that led to Athenian democracy, and identify who could and could not participate in it.
Early Athens was ruled first by kings, then by a small group of wealthy aristocrats, and its laws were harsh: Draco's code of 621 BCE prescribed severe punishment for even minor offenses, which is why English still uses "draconian" for excessively harsh rules. In 594 BCE, the reformer Solon eased crushing debts that had forced many poor Athenians into slavery and widened political participation somewhat, though real power still rested with the wealthy. The turning point came around 508 BCE, when Cleisthenes reorganized Athenian citizens into new groups that cut across old family and regional loyalties and created a Council of 500 chosen by lot from citizens -- reforms historians generally credit as the founding of Athenian democracy.
The word democracy comes from Greek: demos (people) and kratos (power or rule). Athenian democracy was direct, not representative -- citizens themselves gathered in the Assembly to debate and vote on laws, rather than electing representatives to do it for them. But citizenship was narrow: it was limited to free adult men born of Athenian parents, which excluded women, enslaved people (who made up a large share of the population), and foreign residents called metics, no matter how long their families had lived in Athens. Athenians also practiced ostracism: citizens could vote, using broken pottery pieces called ostraka as ballots, to exile a political threat for ten years without a trial.
Mastery looks like: They can explain Cleisthenes' reforms and state accurately, without exaggeration, who could and could not participate in Athenian democracy.
Common stumbles: Describing Athenian democracy as including everyone who lived there, without naming its real exclusions.