This article forms part of a symposium on Paul Cartledge’s ‘Democracy: a life’ (2016). It argues in support of new approaches to Athenian democracy focused on the experience of those who were not active participants in the political institutions of the democracy but excluded because of their status (women, metics, slaves). It further argues that it is important to embrace the democracy of Hellenistic Greek cities, as denying them the status of democracy on grounds of lack of political self-sufficiency leads to similar misconceptions about sovereignty and participation in supra-national politics as those that marred recent UK debates on sovereignty and Brexit.