Democracy in its broadest sense refers to a collective method of decision-making that involves all participants equally. The term originated in ancient Greece from as early as the fifth century BC to denote the notion of a political system that is “ruled by the common people”, in contrast to the term aristocracy, which basically means “ruled by the few”. Although the concept of democracy has been known to political scientists for thousands of years, up until the twentieth century, virtually all regimes who branded themselves democratic failed to practise full enfranchisement. Women, minor ethnic groups and slaves were often denied the right to vote. Contemporary definitions of democracy are distinctively different in the sense that universal suffrage is considered to be a fundamental requirement. The autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland was the first modern state to grant universal suffrage to all of its citizens in 1906.

In modern politics, although there has been no universal consensus on what exactly democracy entails, most political scientists use the term to denote a political system in which each citizen can practise their political power through voting. In a direct democracy, each individual represents themselves by casting their own vote directly. In a representative democracy, representatives are elected to represent an electorate. These democratically elected representatives would then convene to make a decision-making institution, such as a national assembly or a state parliament. As a decision is often made depending on the majority of the votes, democracy is sometimes referred to as the “rule of the majority”. Because of this “rule of majority”, democracy has been criticized for its two inherent flaws: negligence of the rights of the minority and the irrationality of the decisions made through a democratic decision-making mechanism. To address the former, a constitutional democracy employs a constitutional framework to control the power of the majority and ensure the rights of the minority.