There is more to democracy than ballot boxes. Mexico has regular elections but has been ruled by the same party for roughly 60 years. India, with a billion people the most populous democracy in the world, remains in grinding poverty. Because the social elites manage the democracy. The most apparent way is to note how well a country allows peaceful solutions to be found for all manners of grievances any group or individual brings against another.
Free elections is one way in which a citizen can be provided a redress of grievances.
But it is not the only way, nor is it necessarily the most important. A process that guarantees peaceful arbitration and change within the system can be considered more or less democratic, as long as it is open to every citizen. A breakdown occurs when a group or individual feels it is necessary to go outside of the established system, as has happened throughout many Latin American countries. The quality of democracy in Colombia and the other fledgling democracies throughout the region does not match that of the United States or Western Europe. We here in the United States enjoy the freedom of assembly, speech, and the press, and private institutions can be established to help those who believe they have been unjustly treated by the system.