Democracy

Democracy is a system of government in which laws, policies, leadership, and major 1 of a state or other polity are directly or indirectly decided by the 'people', a group historically constituted by only a minority of the population (e.g., all free adult males in ancient Athens or all sufficiently propertied adult males in 19th-century Britain) but generally understood 2 the mid-20th century to include all (or nearly all) adult citizens. By and large, states with democratic governments prevent rule by autocrats, 3 fundamental individual rights, allow 4 a relatively high level of political equality, and rarely make war on each other. As compared with nondemocratic states, they also better foster human development as 5 by indicators such as health and education, provide more prosperity for their citizens, and ensure a 6 range of personal freedoms.