When I was in Greece a bit over a year ago, I hiked up to The Acropolis with some friends. While up there, I heard a tour guide mention that what the ancient Greeks called democracy is not the same as what we call democracy. The reason is because the Greeks had a democracy. What is called “democracy” in western nations isn’t.
The founding fathers of the United States expressly didn’t want a democracy as a system of governance. They likened a democracy to “mob rule” and knew that it wouldn’t last. Instead they created a republic, in an attempt to stave off the degradation into an oligarchy. For an overview of the systems of government, see https://youtu.be/VogzExP3qhI