democracy

Definition of Democracy

(noun) A political system in which people vote directly on policy issues or through elected officials that represent them.

Types of Democracy

• direct democracy
• representative democracy

Democracy Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: de·moc·ra·cy

Audio Pronunciation

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /dᵻˈmɑkrəsi/
• British English – /dᵻˈmɒkrəsi/

Usage Notes

• Plural: democracies
• From Greek demos (the people) and kratos (power).
• The spirit of democracy is called democratism.
• A democracy is the opposite of an autocracy.
• A type of government and political system.
• Also called majority rule.
• When democracy is introduced to a culture, the existing political system is (verb) democratized through (noun) democratization to become more (adjective) democratic.

Related Quotation

• “In fact, democracy and capitalism often contradict each other. Capitalism, after all, frees individuals to pursue their own private interests in the marketplace; it promotes unconstrained liberty. Democracy, on the other hand, constrains individual liberty in the name of the common good” (Kimmel and Aronson 2012:426).

Additional Information

• Politics and Policy Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
• Word origin of “democracy” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
• Axtmann, Roland, ed. 2003. Understanding Democratic Politics. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Berman, Larry, and Bruce Allen Murphy. 2013. Approaching Democracy. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
• Calhoun, C. 2007. Nations Matter: Culture, History and the Cosmopolitan Dream. London: Routledge.
• Dahl, Robert A. 1989. Democracy and its Critics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Dasgupta, Samir, and Jan Nederveen Pieterse. 2009. Politics of Globalization. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Duncan, Graeme Campbell. 1983. Democratic Theory and Practice. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
• Dunn, John. 2006. Democracy: A History. Toronto: Penguin.
• Fine, Bob. 1984. Democracy and the Rule of Law: Liberal Ideals and Marxist Critiques. London: Pluto Press.
• Fukuyama, Francis. 1992. The End of History and the Last Man. London: Hamish Hamilton.
• Fukuyama, Francis. 2014. Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Goodin, Robert E. 2008. Innovating Democracy: Democratic Theory and Practice after the Deliberative Turn. New York: Oxford University Press.
  
• Held, David. 2006. Models of Democracy. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Jaquette, Jane S., and Sharon L. Wolchik. 1998. Women and Democracy: Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Landman, Todd, and Neil Robinson. 2009. The SAGE Handbook of Comparative Politics. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Lane, Jan-Erik, and Svante O. Ersson. 1999. Politics and Society in Western Europe. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Lively, Jack. 1975. Democracy. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
• Lupu, Noam, and Susan Stokes. 2010. “Democracy, Interrupted: Regime Change and Partisanship in Twentieth-century Argentina.” Electoral Studies 29(1):91–104. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2009.07.005.
• Nagle, John D., and Alison Mahr. 1999. Democracy and Democratization: Post-communist Europe in Comparative Perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
  
• Przeworski, Adam. 1993. Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Rodrik, Dani. 2012. The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy. New York: Norton.
• Schumpeter, Joseph Alois. 1943. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. London: Routledge.
• Shapiro, Ian. 2003. The State of Democratic Theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Singh, Robert. 2003. American Government and Politics: A Concise Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Tocqueville, Alexis de. 1835. Democracy in America.
• Wolin, Sheldon S. 2008. Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Introduction to Sociology/Politics – Wikibooks: wikibooks.org
• Word origin of “democracy” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
• Theories of Democracy – Sociology: boundless.com

Related Terms

• authority
• dictatorship
• government
• institution
• law
• monarchy
• power
• socialism
• society

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Reference

Kimmel, Michael S., and Amy Aronson. 2012. Sociology Now. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

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Cite the Definition of Democracy

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “democracy.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved January 16, 2025 (https://sociologydictionary.org/democracy/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

democracy. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/democracy/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “democracy.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed January 16, 2025. https://sociologydictionary.org/democracy/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“democracy.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2025. <https://sociologydictionary.org/democracy/>.