Democracy

1 a: government by the people ; especially : rule of the majority b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections 2: a political unit that has a democratic government. 3 capitalized : the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the United States <from emancipation Republicanism to New Deal Democracy — C. M. Roberts> 4: the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority 5: the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary