> Then how would you describe countries like The Netherlands, Belgium, > the UK and Spain? These are all monarchies and they are all > democratic.
Constitutional monarchies. They are not democracies because there is not a direct rule of the majority.
When you use the literal meaning of "democracy", then you are correct; in fact, in that case there is probably not a single country in the world that qualifies as "democracy".
However, if you use the more common meaning of democracy (a country with a government elected by the populace) then countries like The Netherlands and Belgium *are* democracies.
BTW, yesterday something happened in The Netherlands that made the country look like a democracy in the literal meaning of the word -- the government made a decision based on the will of the people. The Netherlands finally did the right thing, and announced that it will not give any military support to the war against Iraq, because it was not supported by the people of The Netherlands.
Unfortunately, the government continues to support the US politically. Oh well, we'll remember that when it's election time again...
Jeroen "Make love, not war" van Baardwijk
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