In 2003 I (mk) started at the Majority Voice Forums a forum called Definition of Democracy, where people were asked the following questions:
What is your understanding of Democracy? What do you expect from Democracy? How would you define Democracy? Could we arrive at something acceptable to the majority?

Contributions to this forum (received till Jan. 12, 2008) answering the above questions are for your convenience reprinted here:

14. Posted on 02/21/07 by a:
MK, To answer your questions in the forum's description:
If the vast majority of "the people" were now both literate and Internet enabled, this votable Forum System here at MajorityVoice.com would reflect my understanding of what's necessary to actualize the true meaning and intent of the concept of democracy: populations ruling themselves. When real democracy first takes root in a country, I fully expect that country's people to first outlaw political corruption and re-define it as what it really is: treasonous betrayal of the public's trust! This will economize and greatly improve government services, leaving ongoing enormous portions of OUR wealth within the private sector to generally benefit everyone. I think their second mandate would humanely segregate all predatory persons from the general population, restoring safety and sanity to their daily lives. If the majority knew that this system exists, I firmly believe they would consider it the crude but acceptable humble beginnings of the ultimate system that will one day empower them to rightfully define, declare and achieve their true will. The first country to become an actual democracy will be both the envy and the model for the rest of the world to follow. And, that first democracy's population will be the first generation of people empowered to actually ensure both the survival of and prosperity to their own posterity. Absolute power does corrupt absolutely, but only when it's in the hands of the few. In literally everyone's hand it will have the reverse effect, systematically and absolutely uncorrupting the entire world. It'll create a new paradigm of global cooperation, peace and prosperity.

13. Posted on 02/21/07 by a:
Democracy is a political system which enables the self-rule of a country's population in which the will of the majority of the people is the law of the land in every regard. Earth has never had a system of actual democracy simply because we've never had the technology to define the true will of our diverse majorities. Because governments without public oversight naturally become institutionally corrupted over generations due to normal human greed, no small group can ever assure honest and benevolent rule of a people. Only the people, themselves, can rule themselves fairly, with their best interests at heart. Only We can rule ourselves benevolently. So, Let's rule!

13. Posted on 09/30/06 by mbl:
Democracy is to make decisions by voting.

9. Posted on 04/01/05 by sd_udo:
I think we need to have or set up something as close as possible to a Swiss direct democracy or what Thomas Jefferson called "the ward republics". Since the current Federal and state governments are very slow to change, we need to set up a nonprofit association or a nonprofit corporation that is "ultra democratic", meets often, and has GREAT GOALS! I believe an association such as we devise can be MORE EFFECTIVE than a government. One great example of this the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which is a co-op bank which has lifted millions of people out of dire poverty in Bangladesh since the 70's. Read my blog to get an idea of what we can do: www.angelfire.com/sd2/105/udo/.

8. Posted on 04/20/04 by a:
We fear that most people are afraid that literal democracy will obligate them to participate in literally every decision, which would be impossible. We created this system intending that only those interested in or most affected by the problem or issue of a forum would participate in it.
"Those most affected by the decision must have the greatest input."

7. Posted on 10/13/03 by mk:
In a real democracy everybody must be allowed to participate in decision making (direct democracy). It must be a pluralistic system that is as much decentralized as possible (territorialy and minority-wise): all decisions pertaining only to a given group (minority) must be done solely within that group. To be able to achieve real democracy, at large (i.e., affecting the whole society or most of it) authoritative (top-down) structures in which decisions are made solely by commands from a single center have to be removed from the society. Primary example of such a structure is the army. The largest business corporation would also fall into this category. Thus a prerequisite to real worldwide democracy is to achieve the atmosphere of mutual understanding between all countries in which a process of simultaneous world-wide arms reduction could be started.

6. Posted on 10/10/03 by a:
In a literal democracy a comprehensive system would be created for the people to enable any of them to easily initiate a democratic discussion to raise the issue before all the people to enable them to decide upon the specifics of a referendum for a solution to a common problem, not unlike this forum system. And, in a real democracy it wouldn't matter who initiated the referendum. For even politicians are citizens and therefore eligible to start a democratic conversation about a problem.

5. Posted on 10/09/03 by mk:
Several long replies to my questions appeared in the CICDD YahooGroup. Here are the links: messages No. 8296, 8300 and 8305.

4. Posted on 10/05/03 by franzisemann:
Democracy is a system to enable the maximum of individual freedom among ones environment, locally up to worldwide. It requires an optimal combination of majority ruling and minority protection.

3. Posted on 09/28/03 by K:
The original definition of "democracy" was "the people to rule" taken from the Greek words "demos," the people and "kratein," to rule. The intended meaning was "rule by the people." The word has been "re-defined" or pervered down through the ages in various dictionaries to permit many unintended meanings, such as representative delegation of power.

2. Posted on 09/26/03 by a:
Democracy is a political system ruled by its citizens. The ONLY way to do that would be to validate the consent of the governed by vote to establish the true will of the majority of the governed. And, a literal democracy would also enable the citizens to initiate the initiatives (raise the issues) and define the solutions in a votable public forum like this.