dēmos

Greek dēmos originally meant a district or division of land, and then the people who lived in it — a local community or township. In Athens, the dēmos referred both to the rural districts (the demes, of which Attica had about 139) and to the people collectively as a political body. The dēmos was the citizen body — the free adult male Athenians who participated in the assembly.

Cleisthenes' constitutional reforms of 508-507 BCE organized Attica around the demes, making local community membership (rather than aristocratic kinship) the basis of citizenship. This reform was the foundation of Athenian democracy: the dēmos became the sovereign — the source of political authority. The assembly of all citizens could vote on laws, declare war, and try officials. The dēmos was the state.

Demokratia — rule by the dēmos — was coined in the 5th century BCE and was initially a term with complex connotations: proponents saw it as the just distribution of political power; opponents saw it as mob rule, the rule of the ignorant many over the wise few. Plato was famously critical of democracy, seeing it as demagogic (dēmos + agein — leading the people) — rule by those who flattered the crowd.

Today democracy is the most used and most contested form of government word in political vocabulary. Its Greek origin — the sovereign dēmos — is claimed by liberal democracies, social democracies, people's democracies (a Communist usage), and various authoritarian systems. The word has never stopped being contested since the Athenians coined it.