In response to [1], I must insist that "democracy" has an obvious colloquial meaning, that is, the power of the people. While I reckon the "will of the people"

In response to [1], I must insist that "democracy" has an obvious colloquial meaning, that is, the power of the people. While I reckon the "will of the people" is not exactly trivial to define (if there's even such a thing), we do have a few instances of supposedly democratic government go directly against the wishes of the majority of its people (the adoption of the EU constitution by France comes to mind). Come to think of it, the difference between a democracy and a republic is quite obvious: the first is an ideal, while a republic is a set of institutions. Whether a particular set of institutions achieves democracy or not is the hard question.