What Constitutes a Democracy? US? Mexico? Iraq? Iran?

What makes a democracy? Is it the will of the people?

What constitutes the will of the people? Is everything done by an elected government constituted to be the will of the people? If an elected government doesn't act according to the will of the people, would it still be considered a democracy?

When the people overthrow a government, is it considered the will of the people? If it will, was Communist Russia considered the will of the people? Would it then be considered a democracy?

This is the multi billion dollar question facing our world today.

When we say Iraq is a democracy, is it according to the will of the people? When we say Iran is not a democracy, are the people against their president? I would say not! So what makes them not a democracy?

Is democracy a term given to a modern day government, as long as such a government doesn't run afoul of other governments?

In today’s news, a similar question is raised:

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Vicente Fox was forced to abandon his last state of the nation address to Congress on Friday after leftist lawmakers alleging election fraud seized the podium and refused to let him speak.

Shortly before Fox was due to give his speech, dozens of legislators who support leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador marched up to the podium, some with banners calling the president a traitor to democracy.

"Faced with the attitude of a group of legislators that makes it impossible to read the speech I have prepared for this occasion, I am leaving the building," Fox said in the lobby of Congress before walking out.

"Whoever attacks our laws and institutions attacks our history, attacks Mexico," he said. "Mexico demands harmony, not anarchy."

Several hundred protesters marched within a few blocks of Congress, throwing rocks at riot police. But there were no major clashes.

They accuse the president of complicity in a massive fraud to give victory to conservative ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon, his former energy minister. But foreign observers and Mexico's top electoral court do not agree the election was rigged.

Let’s say it was rigged, would it be considered democratic?

Was not President Vicente Fox elected by the people? So how can his decisions be undemocratic?

Does the fact that the new president elect was appointed through elections and approve by an electoral court make the decision democratic?

Or do morals decide democracy? If it is moral, it is democratic, if it is immoral, it is undemocratic.

If so, Iran, who is immoral, is undemocratic and the US, who tries to be moral, is democratic.

But then, if a king is just, moral and acts according to the will of the people, will his government be considered a democracy?!

Feel free to give your feelings on this question.