Alex walked in the classroom and moved swiftly between the rows of seats. She took a seat at the back of the classroom. Taking out her quill and parchment she glanced up at the teacher, awaiting for instructions or maybe even questions. The persons she really recognized from the whole classroom were Amaris, a sixth year Gryffindor friend of hers and of course, Nadia. She squinted again and noticed Noel, another friend of hers, from her second year at Hogwarts. She gave them all a small smile. Half-wondering where Astoria was, she shrugged to herself and turned her gaze back on the Professor.

Hearing the Professor's question, she thought for a moment and than spoke. "Well, I think that democracy is a government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives," she said, simply. It was a bit short, yes, but it just made it easier for them to learn and remeber. And besides, that was the basic concept of the word.

But then .. she remembered the Professor's hint about the answer. If we actually looked for winning housepoints, we defintley needed a longer answer than the one that she just said. She blinked for a few seconds, and then she added: "Democracy is a form of government in which policy is decided by the preference of the majority in a decision-making process, usually elections or referendums, open to all or most citizens. It is now commonly used as a synonym for liberal-democratic systems in nation-states. The meaning of the qualifier 'liberal' in this context is subject to some variance, but includes protections for individual liberty and often includes private property rights (see below and the main article Liberal democracy). Definitions of democracy have in any case broadened to include aspects of society and political culture in democratic societies, which are not specifically a 'form of government'. Most liberal-democracies are parliamentary representative democracies, but there are many varieties of democracy, some still hypothetical. The term 'democratic' is also used in a looser sense, to describe participatory decision-making in groups or organisations." She stopped for a second and took a long, deep breath. Then she continued.

"Since there are other forms of government, the preference for the democratic form is itself an ideology, and a source of conflict. Despite its historical importance, there is no separate name for this ideology, it is referred to as 'pro-democracy' or simply 'democracy'. It is a universal ideology: most supporters of democracy consider it to be the only ethically legitimate form of government, and believe it should replace all other forms of government. Democratisation is the replacement of these non-democratic forms by a democracy, and the historical impact of modern democracy consists mainly in successive democratisations of nation-states. If it continues, this process will make the liberal-democratic nation-states the standard form of human society - a fundamental transition, since they are a historically recent innovation," after saying all this, she all of a sudden needed a drink of water. Her mouth was dry. Alex, however, did not know if the teacher would let her go out. Sighing, she decided she migh as well add to her definition.

"The word democracy originates from the Greek δημοκρατία (demokratia). The components of the word are δημος (demos), the people; κρατειν (kratein), to rule; and the suffix ία (ia). The term means 'rule by the people'." She sounded a bit like she had just swallowed a book, but at this point she did not care anymore. If she knew the whole answer, she might as well as it. After she finished talking, she leaned back in a her seat, and took a deep breath. She did not know if she would be able to speak for the rest of the class today.

Perhaps her answer was too long? Ah well, the longer it was, she would get more house points. Or so she hoped. Staring around, she noticed a few other people giving answers as well. Truth was, they were all pretty good. Feeling the need to add more to her answer she opened her mouth to talk again, but then suddenly stopped, realizing that she had nothing else left to say. She blinked repeatedly and sat quietly in her seat while waiting for the Professor to talk again.