Do ideal democracy exist?

I dare say there are, or have been, democratic leaders who have believed their form of democracy was ideal. Athens in the fifth century B.C? The problem in looking back at democratic communities of long ago is that we cannot know whether it was satisfactory for those who were not in the public eye and could not write or declaim their personal experience. What is 'ideal' - every man having a say in how the community works? A lack of war, uprisings?

A sound economy with no hardship or starvation? Is an ideal what IS or what everyman must aspire to? If Democracy is a system of government that is created by the people, for the people and run by the people then 'ideal' must mean those communities/countries who can evidence that this is so for them.