Edited sentence: ", democracy works best when the people have common interests.All forms of democracy are majoritarian, in that in all forms the majority rules.Democracy as a synonym for fair is at best problematic because democracy can be fair or unfair, just as majority rule can be fair or unfair.Democracy generally will lead to the loss of rights for minorities and individuals by means of the tyranny of the majority, but in a liberal democracy the majority rules but afterward all are equal in rights, the exercise of majority rights may not deny the rights of any.. A government where tyranny of the majority exists remains a democracy because it is possible for democracy to be very unfair.Democracy has often been thought linked with economic equality or inequality; however analysis suggests that economic equality  (or inequality) and democracy are unrelated concepts.In liberal democracy there are strong limits as to what the limits upon what majority rule may decide and what it may not decide.In that era every nation in the world had a minoritarian government.Liberal democracy is closely associated with the concept of universal sufferage, the determination of whom is permitted to vote - or not.Minoritarianism has been revived after centuries of disdain, this time with the intent to protect minority rights.Modern democracy is beginning to also mean fairness.Not all in America were equal, but it was a democracy.Such a democracy is technically known as an illiberal democracy.The American and French Revolution were the first majoritarian governments.The original primary meaning of "democracy" is as a synonym with majority rule.The word as used by Thomas Jefferson did not mean equality in every sense, but only in some ways.The word is nearly synonomous with majority rule or majoritarianism.There are many forms of democracy where it takes more than a one vote majority to decide an issue, some forms even require a unanimous vote.This emerging definition is valid if applied to a liberal democracy, but anyone who asserts that democracy alone is intrinsically "fair" will need to explain how the US was a democracy while still permitting slavery.What is Democracy.When most people say democracy, they really mean a form of democracy where fairness and individual and minority rights are protected from tyranny of the majority; this is a liberal democracy.Widespread oligarchy was then the dominate form of minoritarianism.see also - tyranny of the majority: