Read the following excerpt from Pericles’s speech: Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favors the many instead of the few. . . . If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences…class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition.

Based on the excerpt above, how does Pericles feel about Athenian democracy?