Athenian Constitution

I am facinated with government and how governments came to be. Especailly ancient forms because those are the oldest forms we can study. So learning about the Athenian constitution was interesting. Their demorcracy was starkly different than what we are accustom to in the US. They gave the poor all the power over the government and the decisions and almost shunned the elite and well-born. That way of thinking is almost opposite of the US democracy. The Athenian democracy was in direct opposition of the oligarchy type governments around them, where only the rich and elite got a say. This explains the reasoning behind the way the consitution was written and the way the power was distributed. I think they went overboard with the switch. Their has to be some balence and while they still allowed the rich and the elite in the Assembly, they blamed them for eveything that went wrong with policy imposed. They just went to far in trying to correct the problem they saw with others. They put the poor completely in control. The US tried to do more of a balance of the two extremes, it still leans to give the power to the well-off and rich more so than anything but it is closer. Not everyone would agree with that but it is my oppion, government is such a touchy subject sometimes.