Who had the first democratic system?

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Like I said, I've been reading further afield lately, and am
almost finished with Michael Grant's The
Rise of the Greeks, which is my idea of fun. Fill in this blank: "Thus
in respect of basic equalities, [ ] was the first authentic, thoroughgoing
democracy among the Greeks or anywhere in the world, as far as its citizens
were concerned." (P. 93, paperback)

The answer is below.

Grant also says that the early Greek philosopher Anaximander was poking
around with evolutionary theory, hypothesizing that "higher formers had
developed from lower forerunners, so that human beings, at first a kind of fish
in the water, had shed their scales on dry land so as to adjust their way of
life to this new earthy medium." (P. 162)

So what is the answer? Oddly, Sparta. He also says that
Spartan women enjoyed unusual privileges, with property rights, the right to
speak freely, and freedom to engage in adulterous affairs, partly "owing to the
continuous and urgent need to maintain and increase the Spartan birthrate." (P.
98) I guess this was the Spartan version of "don't ask, don't tell."