Actually the good olde USA was not necessarily a democracy by pure definition until after 1965. Its founding father deliberately wrote the Constitution in a way that guarded against democracy (meaning majouritarianism here). It was an elitist republic where the elites enjoyed pluralistic democracy among themselves through delegated representatives, whilst guarding against an alleged “tyranny of majourity” demanding more racial, gender, wealth and class equality and equity. It has become much more “democratic” after 1965 with the passages of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. Nonetheless, the continued existence and functioning of the electoral college, Senate filibustering, and other institutional roadblocks meant to preserve the power of the privileged minority against majouritarianism mean that the good olde USA is not necessarily a democracy but a constitutional republic.
Having said that, when folks talk (especially Chinese liberals) about democracy, they really need to distinguish between the concepts of “democracy”, “freedom” and “republic”. Democracy does not equate freedom, and the two terms are more often at odds against one another. Unfortunately, most Chinese liberals often have ill-informed wet dreams about democratisation without even able to distinguish the key difference between the three terms.
