DEMOCRACY

noun (plural -cies) Etymology: Middle French democratie, from Late Latin democratia, from Greek dēmokratia, from dēmos + -kratia -cracy Date: 1576 1. government by the people, 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, the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the United States , the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority, the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges