"Government of the people, by the people, and for the people."
Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address

Democracy originated with the ancient Greeks.  Democracy comes from the Greek root words demos, meaning "the people" and kratein meaning "to rule."  So the basic definition of democracy is "rule by the people."

There are two types of democracy: Direct democracy and representative democracy.   Direct democracy is where there is direct participation of the people.  Everyone would gather in town meetings and vote on issues concerning the town.  Since the United States is too big to have such meetings, we instead have representative democracy.  Representative democracy, as the name states, is a system in which the people select others to act in their places.  For national purposes, we have 2 representatives from each states.

There are three issues to consider when learning about democracy: popular sovereignty, political equality, and political liberty.  Popular sovereignty means that the people rule.  In other words, the government does the will of the people.   Political equality means that each person must carry equal weight in the conduct of the public business.  Political liberty refers to the protection of the citizens from the government interfering with basic freedoms, such as freedom of speech, association, and conscience.

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