What is democracy?

I guess most of us have at least some basic ideas of it, since we are living in a democratic society. ENS lecturer asked this question and gave an answer by himself that "democracy is all about accountability", which mean 1 person 1 vote in the simplest sense.

The first major principle we learnt about democracy is "majority rules" (多数统治或少数服从多数）. What's next? I am not so clear but recently I meet this term "tyranny of majority rules" (多数专政）, which means that governing majority may make laws that abuse the rights of minority. That's the reason why government can be formed by a simple majority, but constitution and laws can only be changed by a super majority (2/3 of present votes) in parliament. This is to protect minority rights.

"Tyranny of majority rules" is one of more known problem of democracy. Besides this, there's also a heated discussion among scholars about the relative importance of "procedures vs decision", with the central argument of how far democratic procedures can ensure good decisions. These issues are beyond my comprehension at this moment, and I shall leave it for further exploration.

As far as a netizen concerns, one step at a time is enough.