:government by the people especially :rule of the majority :a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections :a political unit that has a democratic government capitalized :the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the United States from emancipation Republicanism to New Deal Democracy C. M. Roberts :the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority :the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges :democracy in which the power is exercised directly by the people rather than through representatives :a political movement advocating a gradual and peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism by democratic means :a democratic welfare state that incorporates both capitalist and socialist practices :a political philosophy advocating preservmanation of established institutions and traditional principles combined with political democracy and a social and economic program designed to benefit the common