> I would refer to that as a "liberal democracy". It would be nice if everyone adhered to the rule you are describing but that simply isn't what happens in the

> I would refer to that as a "liberal democracy". It would be nice if everyone adhered to the rule you are describing but that simply isn't what happens in the real world. In acutal usage the unadorned term 'democracy' almost always should be interpreted to mean 'representative government with constitutional protections for individual rights'. Obviously the 'representative' part comes in all sorts of flavors as well as the 'individual rights' part. Rarely does anyone using the naked term 'democracy' really mean 'direct majority rule with no minority rights'.