When we consider democracy as being a process of government rather than a "type" of government, we can begin to identify what what we would call democratic values and mechanisms in other societies. However, it is important to note that our current vision of these concepts usually do not translate 100% into the structure of the past.

Ideas of democracy are commonly attributed to the Western World, but their envisioning and development did not occur their in isolation. Several hundred years before the colonization of the Americas, for example, the Haudenosaunee implemented what we now refer to as "The Great Law of Peace." Acting as essentially their constitution, this framework for democracy among their societies has even arguably had a substantial influence on the forming of the United States Constitution.

I've written several answers in the past regarding this, to which you can find here:

• Hiawatha - The Great Law of Peace (Brief history of the Iroquois from Extra Credits) (Not my post, but relevant information I provided on another sub)

• What Native American tribe(s) was the most powerful as the colonists started settling into the New World? (1600s-1700s)

• My humanities teacher claims that in prehistory, human society was generally matriarchal, being ruled by priestesses, and that the main religion was mother-earth worship. She claims that this information is being passively covered up by acedemia. Would you consider this accurate?

• Were Native North Americans egalitarian?