Why do many historians consider the Greek city-states an important development in the political history of Western civilization?

Answer 1

The more critical amongst them don't, since practically all of the city-States - including even Athens - were olicharchies from beginning to end, run by a few powerful families. The argument usually used is that Athens specifically is 'the birthplace of democracy'. Give this 'democracy' a closer look however, and you will find that it only existed for a limited period of time and even in the relatively short period that it existed, it consisted only of a limited number of mass meetings on a limited number of subjects. These meetings were usually carefully orchestrated by the ruling families, who saw to it that all executive power and functions remained exclusively in their hands throughout. Women and slaves (making up the majority of the population) of course had no rights at all, democratic or otherwise.