Was Athens really a democracy?

Athens was considered a democracy, acually it was considered on of the very first dfremocracy's there were in history. Many other Greek cities tried to folow Athens and make themselves a democracy, but they did their deocracy in a different way then Athens did. None of the other cities were as strong or as powerful as Athen's democracy. "It remains a unique and intriguing experiment in direct democracy where the people do not elect representatives to vote on their behalf but vote on legislation and executive bills in their own right. Participation was by no means open, but the in-group of participants was constituted with no reference to economic class and they participated on a scale that was truly phenomenal." (excert from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy)

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