"Democracy" today means rule by a self-identified elite, or people endorsed by that elite.
As Sam Francis wrote back in 2004, "What they mean by 'democracy' is nothing more than the system of dominance that came to prevail in the United States and the Western world in the last half of the last century. That system has nothing to do with elections, opposition parties, civil and political rights, or 'liberty,' nor does it have anything to do with political theory, ancient or modern. 'Democracy,' as the neocons and the President and most others who are enthusiastic about it use the word, means the centralized leviathan state under the firm and unqualified control of the managerial bureaucracy and those political forces able to influence it."