I misrememberedm my bad! Polis meaning city I should have as the example I usually used was policeman "man of the city"

Demos = people and Cracy = rule
Plato said that aristocracy (aristo = the best) was the most effective form of govt (as in a benign dictatership) while Democracy was the worst. Also while everyone was supposed to particpate it meant that a city state of 8,000 citizens was supported by a slave culture of approx 40.000 non -citizens mainly consisting of slaves woman and foreignors Cllr

from the bbc website

he ancient Greek word demokratia was ambiguous. It meant literally 'people-power'. But who were the people to whom the power belonged? Was it all the people - all duly qualified citizens? Or only some of the people - the 'masses'? The Greek word demos could mean either. There's a theory that the word demokratia was coined by democracy's enemies, members of the rich and aristocratic elite who did not like being outvoted by the common herd, their social and economic inferiors. If this theory is right, democracy must originally have meant something like 'mob rule' or 'dictatorship of the proletariat'.