Who was responsible for the birth of democracy?

Democracy goes back to ancient Greece and was defined by Aristotle as the "rule of many." A government, by this definition, is democratic if all, or most, of the citizens take part in the government or make policy for the government. This is also known as participatory democracy. Some of the citizens are elected officials, some are appointed, and some do the voting. In Greece in the 4th Century BC, such a government developed. True democracy was possible then because of the Greek city-state, or polis, being small in size and small in population. MrV The start of democracy is generally attributed to Cleisthenes, an Athenian noble. He came up with this, not for a moral concious, but to beat his Spartan backed political opponent by appealing to the masses. SECOND OPINION: Many people call the USA a "democracy," but it is NOT. The United States id a REPUBLIC. (I pledge Allegiance to the REPUBLIC for which it stands.) WE do, however, apply the "Democratic Voting process" to our Law-making.