DEMOCRACY

(Gr. SjjAtaf, people, and xea-nu, I govern.) A government is usually termed a democracy in which the whole of the people, or a large proportion of it, exercises sovereignty either directly or by representatives. According to some political writers, the term is strictly appropriate only where " a majority of the adult males '' share in the government. In Aristotle's view of governments, democracy is a perversion of the imaginary system, which he terms Polite i a, or commonwealth par excellence; in which the majority are supposed to govern for the good of the whole, while in democracy they govern for their own. See Republic. [s. 338]