It's NOT democracy!

I am very, very tired of hearing people say that something is a democracy because it lets people express themselves, or because it is more egalitarian. Please stop this statist nonsense!

A democratic system must have the following:
* A centralized authority which has all the power to decide what is permissible and what is not, and the election of that authority based on popularity, OR
* A centralized authority which directly enforces decisions based on popularity.

Unless it is one of these two, it is not a democracy. So please stop saying the following:

"The Internet is democratic"- no it isn't. The Internet does not have a central authority to begin with.
"Wikipedia is democratic"- nope. It does have a hierarchy, but it is appointed, not elected, and people have a lot of leeway in resolving their own disputes.
"YouTube is democratic"- although it does have a central authority, it is not elected.

If you mean "populist," "egalitarian" or "new media", then SAY "populist, "egalitarian" or "new media"- don't say "democratic" when there's no democracy there.