First, one really needs to define what exactly is meant by democracy, before you can really answer that question. For instance, if you've got half the posters saying that the U.S. is a democracy, and the other half saying it isn't, then clearly you haven't sufficiently defined what a democracy is as far as the question goes. When you say democracy, do you mean a pure democracy, or a direct democracy? Do you include systems such as a democratic-republic, which is what the U.S. is? Or are you referring to any system, direct, pure, indirect, republic, representative, constitutional, parliamentary,...etc., whatever,... in which the people in general are given a say as to how they are governed?? Tbh, normally when I see someone refer to democracy, I simply assume they are referring to the latter, and I certainly wouldn't fault anyone for assuming others would hold that same view. But when folks so frequently jump into such discussions to shout things such as "mob rule", or "the U.S. isn't democratic" it becomes obvious that such assumptions should not be made. -Meta
