Democracy! who's gonna define

Breaking things down to the latin roots, demos=people and cracy=rule. So, it is a government run by the people. A theocracy, for example, is ruled by theology, usually a government ruled by a church.The "most democratic act" in today's democracies is voting, but I'm sure other people can find examples of other democratic acts (maybe popular overthrow of an autocratic regime?). In America, the "most democratic act" seems to be complaining but never voting. I like Australia's voting law, everyone must show up at the polls by law or face the consequences. You still don't have to vote, but you do have to register at the polls.

Great post Abshalom, great use of rhetorical questions (at least they seemed rhetorical to me).Restrictions on registration to vote and voting itself is something that this country (US) has dealt with for years, women for example were only allowed to vote as of 1920. Add in poll taxes and societal pressures placed on minorities and history, and arguably the present, is not the best example of a representative democracy. The electoral college is still debatable, it does protect some states with small populations but large amounts of land, but it is a throwback to the sovereignty of the original states.Besides voting, free speech, free press, and freedom to congregate are especially important, and should only be loosely regulated. Freedom to drink a cold frosty one after work was outlawed for awhile, thank goodness they got rid of that stupid ammendment.