This paper takes on the recent debates about the Athenian revolution and suggests that a more fruitful approach is to look at the dynamics by which the Athenian democracy was created and maintained rather than looking for a definitive moment of revolution,as former scholars tend to do.It argues that the tensions and conflicts between the lower class citizens and the upper classes are the key to understanding the nature of Athenian democracy and evaluating the role of revolution in the classical history of Athenians.