The democracy which Aristotle and the rest of the Greeks feared and decried is set out in Aristotle's Politics ; Book I, Chapter 8, "where the supreme power of the state is lodged with "those [who] have it who are worth little or nothing." In other words, direct government of a city state by the poor.
But this is not what is meant by "democracy" in a modern context.
In a modern context, democracy is a form of government where the legislators and magistrates are elected or appointed at given intervals, or under particular circumstances, by either the people themselves or their elected representatives. The conditions for these elections and appointments are set forth in a constitution based on either tradition or a document, or a set of documents, or some combination thereof; these may be modified by laws passed by the legislators or decisions handed down by the magistrates subsequent to the adoption/evolution of the constitution into its current form.
This is in part what is called a representative democracy. Or in the long form: this is "a constitutionally limited, democratically elected, governed by representatives of the people, republic."
Throw in that the nation is politically dominated by a middle class that is educated and takes an active interest in what their government is doing, and you have what Aristotle considered his ideal state; Politics, Book IV, Chapter 11.
Those on the Right love to say that the United States is not a democracy, and that nowhere will you find the word "democracy" in the Constitution.
Well by that logic, neither are we a republic. Nowhere in the Constitution will you find the word "republic." In fact, even the amorphous term "republican" is only found in Article IV, Section 4; where it says that all states will have a "republican form of government," whatever that means. This limitation is applied only to the states, and not to the Federal government.
Historically, the word "republic" has been applied to such diverse governments as Venice under the Doges, France under Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety, the Netherlands under the Stadholders , and Russia under the Communists (Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics). Even Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell's theocratic dictatorship was titled the "English Republic." In all of these cases, there were "constitutions" in place that were supposed to limit what the government was allowed to do. Yet, all of these examples are, at first glance, as different from one another as snowflakes.
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