The meaning of democracy.

Democracy, from Greek, means “dominion of the people,” in other words, government, or the rule of the people. But the fact that everything is not so simple is already clear from the fact that there are so many states which differ from each other in their fundamental structure and which are nevertheless called democracies. Most countries are in favor of democracy and democratic ideas. Without pronounced distinctions, elected dictators, “democratic” people’s republics, representative “democracy” and direct “democracy” are lined up. Democracy in Western coinage does not provide sufficient explanation, there are too many fundamental differences in the politics of democratic countries for the concept of democracy to achieve a unified meaning. However, even worse than the variety of “democratic” trends is the fact that in reality no democracy seems to exist in the literal sense. People’s supremacy is manifested at best by the fact that the people still have the right to elect representatives, that certain laws can be appealed against, and that some changes in the law can be proposed in a minor way. The lack of popular assemblies in which to discuss and decide a political case, and the lack of politically interested and educated citizens today are a reflection of the real picture of what is going on, in fact. Decisions are made in most cases without regard to the popular will, and sometimes against it altogether. Is democracy or popular domination only a vocabulary shell that can be used at will? On the one hand, the optionality of the general ideal implies the particularity of the actual, on the other hand, the distinction of actual democracy, follows from this optionality and the relationship between the ideal and reality. The discussion of the democratic ideal is necessary if we do not want to be misled by the definition.