"This question raises another: what is democracy?
"The answer to this appears very simple. It is translated as 'government by the people' and, at first glance, this would seem to settle it. But even a brief consideration tells us that this gives us only a very superficial and purely formal definition. Almost everyone who uses the term 'democracy' nowadays takes it to mean something more than just a form of government. We shall come much closer to the heart of the matter if we express ourselves negatively and define democracy as the absence of class government. This indicates a state of society in which no class has a political privilege which is opposed to the community as a whole. This also makes it immediately clear why a monopolistic corporation is anti-democratic. Furthermore, this negative definition has the advantage over the phrase 'government by the people' that it leaves less room for the idea of the oppression of the individual by the majority, which is absolutely repugnant to the modern mind. Nowadays we find the oppression of a minority by the majority 'undemocratic', although it was originally held to be quite consistent with government by the people.' As we understand it today, the concept of democracy includes an idea of justice, that is, equality of rights for all members of the community, and this sets limits to the rule of the majority―which is what government by the people amounts to, in any concrete case. The more democracy prevails and determines public opinion, the more it will come to mean the greatest possible degree of freedom for all."―Eduard Bernstein (The Preconditions of Socialism, Ch. 4, Section 3)
