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DEMOCRACY
Main Entry: de·moc·ra·cy
Pronunciation: di-'mä-kr&-sE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -cies
Etymology: Middle French democratie, from Late Latin democratia,
from Greek dEmokratia, from dEmos + -kratia -cracy
1 a : government by the people; especially :
rule of the majority b : a government in which the supreme
power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly
through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free
elections
2 : a political unit that has a democratic government
3 capitalized : the principles and policies of the
Democratic party in the U.S.
4 : the common people especially when constituting the source
of political authority
5 : the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions
or privileges |