Meaning

noun the political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives

noun a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them

noun the doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group

originFrom Middle French democratie (French démocratie), from Medieval Latin dēmocratia, from Ancient Greek δημοκρᾰτῐ́ᾱ (dēmokrătĭ́ā). By surface analysis, demo- (“people”) + -cracy (“rule”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0