Athenian democracy was

Answer 1

Athens' democracy consisted mostly of the occasional plebiscite, comparable with today's referendum. Only freeborn male citizens could participate; women were considered mere 'possessions' of their husbands or fathers who had power of even life and death over them. There were no 'democratic' institutions. The plebiscites mentioned above were usually carefully orchestrated. Which was easy, because the ordinary citizens of Athens all were 'clients' of one or another important family to which they were loyalty-bound and who they visited on a regular basis to pay their respects or to ask for favors or protection..

In terms of day-to-day government Athens was an Oligarchy, run by the members of a small group of rich and powerful families. The idea of Athens being the 'cradle of democracy' is largely an invention of 19th century poet Lord Tennyson who in this way (and succesfully) drummed up support from Britain and France for Greece's revolution against its Ottoman overlords.