Final answer:
Ancient Greece did not have a liberal democracy by modern standards; instead, Athens had a direct democracy limited to free male citizens.
Step-by-step explanation:
The political system in ancient Greece was not a liberal democracy in the modern sense of the term. The term democracy in the context of ancient Athens, indeed, refers to a political system in which power was held by the people, but it was limited to free male citizens of Athens, excluding women, slaves, and foreigners.
As such, the Athenian political system could be described as a form of direct democracy rather than a liberal democracy, which typically involves representative democratic institutions and a broader inclusion of the population. Furthermore, the degree of political participation in Greek city-states varied widely, spanning from monarchies and oligarchies to this more restricted form of democracy.