I believe that Athens was a democracy. It may not be the same type of democracy as ours, or even any other democracies in the world, but it was a democracy. Even though the base definition of democracy is clear, there are many different ways that it can be interpreted, and many different variations of it. Although Athens had a somewhat biased democracy, it was a democracy none the less. Most of the time, only the rich men that were citizens of Athens could vote or participate in government. Some may say that this was not a good representation of "the people." Even though this is true, this still is a government that is ruled or governed by more than one person, thus, making it "the people." When one thinks of the people, they may see an entire civilization that needs to be represented. By more of a technical definition, "the people" may just include two or three people. Also, today the United Stated has representatives to vote for groups of people, and when one thinks about this, this is also not a very good representation of all of the people. So. As you can see, Athens is classified as a democracy because at least a portion of the people were represented, and the civilization was trying to be run in a way that was best for all citizens.
Sites used:
Cartledge, Paul. "Critics and Critiques of Athenian Democracy." BBC - Homepage. BBC, 05 Nov. 2009. Web. 14 Feb. 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekcritics_01.shtml>.
Photograph from:
Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 31 Mar. 2008. Web. 14 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_Agora_of_Athens_4.jpg>.
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