Criteria? First of course is that the people elect their leaders and not the leaders selecting their "voters". How independent are the various pillars of a fu

Criteria? First of course is that the people elect their leaders and not the leaders selecting their "voters". How independent are the various pillars of a functioning democracy? The Legislative, Judiciary, Executive, Press, Academia, Industry, Religions, NGOs, etc.? Are these institutions free to pursue their own course, or have they all been co-opted to serve the ends of an autocrat or oligarchy? This all exists on a spectrum that can be measured. Hungary is, although nominally a democracy, tipping strongly to autocracy and is in danger of being expelled from the EU. OTOH, Iceland kicked out the bankers & politicians that caused the crisis a decade ago... Both nominally democracies, one strong, one weak. The US nearly fell to Hungary's fate, and still may, but things are trending better and a majority recognize that parts of one party are no longer a valid political party but are attempting to threaten democracy itself. So, no it is not a self-defining tautology, but a characteristic that can be measured. The US has not yet fallen, but is definitely under attack from within on two major fronts, one is masquerading as a political party, and the second was previously the greatest threat, which was corporate regulatory & legislative capture. Progress is being made against both. I'd suggest reading a bit more about it with the Renew Democracy Initiative [0]. [0] https://rdi.org/our-values/#statement https://rdi.org/our-values/#statement