This system was democracy, not only did citizens participate in a direct democracy whereby they themselves made the decisions by which they lived, but they also actively served in the institutions that governed them, and so they directly controlled all parts of the political process.
http://www.ancient.eu/Athenian_Democracy/ Athenian Democracy Solon and Cleisthenes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj2R0rrFSNM
