Democracy exists only when government reflects the intention and the will of its citizens. If its institutions are controlled by those who think their own interests and/or beliefs should override those of the collective polity, democracy is undermined. Democracy requires that representatives be humble enough to admit that while their ideas deserve a hearing in the political discourse, so do the ideas of all citizens. Democracy can only be functional when either consensus or compromise can be reached which reflects the collective will of its citizenry.
It follows then that an attempt to skew representation or the policy it invokes toward one pole or another to seek either advantage of power or domination of ideology without regard to the collective or common welfare of citizens, is something other than democracy.
