Quote Originally Posted by Dmitry Khomitchuk View Post
The first question is what is DEMOCRACY?
The word democracy, is of course Greek as the concept of democracy (of course women, poor people and slaves didn't have the right to vote then ), and derives from the words = Δήμος (demos) + Κρατεί (kratei). "Demos" means people and "kratei" means rule, so it is the political system that people rule. On this initial definition in ancient Greece all the decisions were taken with consensus (i.e. the 100% of all residents of Athens should agree in order for a decision to be made, at that time about 5,000 people!). Based on this definition no country has a real democracy. Because consensus is impossible to achieved all the time the system of majority was introduced again for the first time in Greece. Putin if I am correct is now the majority in Russia, so democracy based on the definition of majority works in Russian. However, based on John Stuart Mill, who is the father of political liberalism, the majority should never depress the minorities ("tyranny of the majority"). Based on the second definition Russia is one of the most failed democracies on planet (... you don't want me to mention examples). In contemporary Greece we have a different problem now "tyranny of the minority" where few leftist groups block any attempt of reformation.