[Nathanba]

All of those are just additional things ones wishes democracies to have but are not inherent in the word definition. I can certainly see that some people wish to have the definition of "democracy" expanded to mean many additional things but that really isn't the point of having that very precise word.

[mmooss]

What basis do you have to say that? Otherwise, these claims are just bytes with no force behind them. You can see the overwhelming evidence and consensus otherwise, stretching over centuries!

Even more, why do you want it to be true? Why do people want to eliminate their own and others human rights, an incredibly positive basis for society and for your freedom and prosperity, which has resulted in what are by far the most successful societies and people, by many measures, in human history? You're giving away all that for what? To look clever and 'with it'? Smarter than democracy? Very clever.

You should be fighting for it, like your predecessors did. Otherwise, you'll lose it. There are people actively and successfully taking it away, while you are engaging in this philosphical exercise.

[Nathanba]

Words have a fairly precise dictionary meaning and it's important not to constantly wage a word war where you want to win political and social arguments through word redefinitions. It's information pollution, you redefine words like "love", "equality", "freedom", "democracy" until they mean something completely different and suddenly you have a divided population that can't even talk to each other anymore because all this confusion that you just had over the word "democracy" is only possible because you are misusing the word.

[mmooss]

It's not a redefinition. I just showed you definitions centuries old. These things are universally associated with democracy, except by dictators and their supporters who try to redefine them.

[Nathanba]

Yes, "associated with". But it is not part of the definition of the word. I don't know how much clearer anybody could make this. Democracy just means voting, it does not even mean that everyone gets to vote and certainly not equally. Even if you don't like it and even if you want that to be included in the word definition, that doesn't make it so.