It's not so much that "democracies are not as democratic as people think" — but that they're more democratic than non-democracies. Classic example might be Anc

It's not so much that "democracies are not as democratic as people think" — but that they're more democratic than non-democracies. Classic example might be Ancient Greece, were the percentage of the population that actually participated in the government was 10%. Given most political topics of major concern are usually closely divided, this means that it would not have been uncommon for 6% of the population to actually decide the fate of a given issue. Of that 6%, it's like a singular person (or small group of people) actually was the key to the outcome of the vote. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy