The constitutional part is important too — it limits what people, and their representatives, can do even if they have a majority.
Similarly when electing the president people vote for a person who will vote for the president. While it is a weird system, in essence the leader is chosen by the people.
Calling only direct democracy a democracy would be weird, by that standard a country pretty much can't be democratic for purely practical reasons (though Switzerland comes close)
People like to say this all the time like it's clever, but being a republic does not preclude being democratic. The United States is a democracy.
No, but the particular form of the US republic does so in practice.
> The United States is a democracy.
The United States may have been built around an idea of representative democracy, but in function it is more of a plutocratic republic with quasi-democratic rituals.
"We're doing stand-ups and we use story points, we're agile"
You elect you president ; you elect your representatives to congress and senate at federal level ; you elect your representatives and governor at state level ; you elect your mayor and your city council at local level.
That's the definition of democracy.
I very much dislike neo-nazis, but I have to applaud the gentleman for at least understanding the simplest nature of his government and attempting to educate his countrymen.