Democracy is defined by constraints on rulers, not by elections alone.

Evidence

In a sense, one can think of a dictatorship as a system in which a ruler, when in office (no matter how he gets there), is uncontrolled, while an essential element of democracy is some sort of checks and balances on the politicians, above and beyond the fact that the latter are elected. — Philippe Aghion, Alberto Alesina, and Francesco Trebbi, Endogenous Political Institutions, 56

Categorization

• DEFINE: Cuts the definition of democracy down to checks and balances, explicitly separating it from the electoral mechanism that most people use as shorthand.
• APHORISMS: Reads as durable political wisdom: election without constraint is not yet self-rule.