democracy
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: government
Etymology: From Middle French democratie (French démocratie), from Medieval Latin dēmocratia, from Ancient Greek δημοκρᾰτῐ́ᾱ (dēmokrătĭ́ā).
By surface analysis, demo- (“people”) + -cracy (“rule”).
Inflected forms:
form: democracies
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Rule by the people, especially as a form of government; either directly or through elected representatives (representative democracy).
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: And the essential value and power of Democracy consists in this,—that it combines, as far as possible, power and organization ; THE SPIRIT, MANHOOD, is at one with THE BODY, ORGANIZATION. [....] Democracy is Government by the People.
The period, that is, which marks the transition from absolutism or aristocracy to democracy will mark also the transition from absolutist or autocratic methods of nomination to democratic methods.
A century ago there was in the Old World only one tiny spot in which the working of democracy could be studied. A few of the ancient rural cantons of Switzerland had recovered their freedom after the fall of Napoleon, and were governing themselves as they had done from the earlier Middle Ages[...]. Nowhere else in Europe did the people rule.
Everyone who wanted to speak did so. It was democracy in its purest form.
On this day in 1977, Taiwan witnessed a watershed moment in its march to democracy: the Chungli Incident. Violence broke out on the night of the largest-yet elections in the country’s history. Some 10,000 people took to the streets in protest following reports of election fraud on the part of the ruling Kuomintang.
“If you have rule of the bureaucrat — if the bureaucracy is in charge, then what meaning does democracy actually have?” Musk said during his 30-minute appearance with Trump, where he rebuffed critics who said he’s the one undermining democratic institutions.
gloss: A government under the direct or representative rule of the people of its jurisdiction.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: Of course, the Russians think it is something else because they say the Russians have a democracy and it is plain that their government is not what the Americans regard as a democracy.
Since the wisest and most moral would not necessarily be the choice of the majority of people, Plato's Republic is not a democracy.
In 1900 not a single country had what we would today consider a democracy: a government created by elections in which every adult citizen could vote.
gloss: A state with a democratic system of government.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: Some countries which were originally monarchies, like the UK, have maintained their status as monarchies whilst also becoming democracies in the modern era; others, like France, completely disposed of their monarchies when they became democracies.
After almost four decades of authoritarian rule, South Africa became a democracy in April 1994.
The United States was founded as a republic, not a democracy.
Israel is not a democracy, as these elections proved once again. Democracy is the rule of the people, not the rule of one people over another.
Biden led a virtual summit event in Washington focused on democracy delivering on global challenges, calling on democracies to continue to stand together amid global challenges.
gloss: Belief in political freedom and equality; the "spirit of democracy".
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: As states of the human spirit democracy, righteousness, and faith have much in common and may be cultivated by the same means...
It must further be admitted that he provided a successful interpretation of democracy in its philosophic aspects when he conceived democracy as a general outlook on the universe... In Bakunin's conception of democracy as religious in character we trace the influence of French socialism.
The spirit of democracy means, above all, liberty of choice for human beings... democracy, in both its individual and collective forms, is the main engine of the eternal human striving for justice and prosperity.
Synonyms: democratism
Related words: democrat
democratic
Derived words: algorithmocracy
antidemocracy
aristodemocracy
arsenal of democracy
authoritarian democracy
Christian democracy
counterdemocracy
crony democracy
cyberdemocracy
democracide
democracy sausage
democratize
democrazy
demokkkracy
demonocracy
dictatorship of democracy
direct democracy
dollar democracy
dotmocracy
dumbocracy
ecodemocracy
e-democracy
fax democracy
grassroots democracy
Islamocracy
liberal democracy
limited democracy
liquid democracy
majoritarian democracy
media democracy
nondemocracy
nuclear democracy
overdemocracy
participatory democracy
people's democracy
plutodemocracy
popular democracy
post-democracy
predemocracy
pro-democracy
protected democracy
pseudo-democracy
pseudodemocracy
pure democracy
quasidemocracy
socdem
social democracy
superdemocracy
tandemocracy
technodemocracy
teledemocracy
theodemocracy
Tory Democracy
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