Democracy, as it is used today, means " the people rule." A democracy is a form of government that is run by the people of that country through elections and representation. A democracy is really a form of a republic known as a democratic republic. A republic is a government where officials, elected by a small group of people, make the important decisions.
             Democracy has been around for almost 2500 years since Athens, Greece became the first democracy. The Romans also experimented with democracy, however it was more a republic, and not a democracy. Around 1200 England laid the groundwork to become a republic. Later, in the 1700's, United States of America, became a democracy.
             There are many features of democracy. Most of these features are the same, but individual countries use varations of the main ideas. The main feature of democracy, which determines a true democracy, is free, competitive elections. Sometimes women or minorities don't have the right to vote. Some of these other features, such as checks on power, help to limit the strength of any one person or party. Other features like free elections, and majority/ minority rule, help to make elections fair, since the judgment of many people is generally better then the judgment of a few people. Political parties keep one government, or idea of government form holding all power. These features let the people to govern themselves without the country being torn apart.
             There are two true types of democracies, direct democracies, and representative democracies. In a direct democracy all the people meet to discuss problems and creat laws. A direct decision consults all the people for the decisions.. Since that is unpractical in todays world, a new form of democracy, the representative democracy has been made up. This form of democracy has elected representatives making most of the day to day decisions, while the main groups of citizens consulted for only the most i...