A person chooses and acts. Suppose a majority of people want to string up a man because they don't like his skin color. In a democracy, government does, indeed, empower the people. It empowers them to be parasites. Government is an inherently parasitic institution.
Democracy empowers people to grab hold of that power and use it for their own particular benefit.
And grab hold they do. In fact, the democratic arrangement is more parasitic, for now, any one can get in on the act. Government becomes the middleman, the parasitic intermediary, in the democratic arrangement, and the politicians and bureaucrats who run the operation secure a good buck at it. Their work is called public service. Recent presidential campaigns show how people, empowered by democracy, assert themselves.