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Democracy vs Revolution - What's the difference?

democracy | revolution |

As nouns the difference between democracy and revolution

is that democracy is (uncountable) rule by the people, especially as a form of government; either directly or through elected representatives (representative democracy) while revolution is revolution.

democracy

Noun

(democracies)
  • (uncountable) Rule by the people, especially as a form of government; either directly or through elected representatives (representative democracy).
  • * 1866 , J. Arthur Partridge, On Democracy , Trübner & Co., page 2:
  • And the essential value and power of Democracy' consists in this,—that it combines, as far as possible, power and organization ; THE SPIRIT, MANHOOD, ''is at one with'' THE BODY, ORGANIZATION. [....] ' Democracy is Government by the People.
  • * 1901 , The American Historical Review , American Historical Association, page 260:
  • The period, that is, which marks the transition from absolutism or aristocracy to democracy will mark also the transition from absolutist or autocratic methods of nomination to democratic methods.
  • * 1921 , James Bryce Bryce, Modern Democracies , The Macmillan Company, page 1:
  • A century ago there was in the Old World only one tiny spot in which the working of democracy could be studied. A few of the ancient rural cantons of Switzerland had recovered their freedom after the fall of Napoleon, and were governing themselves as they had done from the earlier Middle Ages[...]. Nowhere else in Europe did the people rule.
  • * 1994 , Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 24:
  • Everyone who wanted to speak did so. It was democracy in its purest form.
  • (countable, government) A government under the direct or representative rule of the people of its jurisdiction.
  • * 2003 , Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad , W. W. Norton & Company, page 13:
  • In 1900 not a single country had what we would today consider a democracy : a government created by elections in which every adult citizen could vote.
  • (uncountable) Belief in political freedom and equality; the "spirit of democracy".
  • * 1918 , Charles Horton Cooley, “A Primary Culture for Democracy”, in Publications of the American Sociological Society 13 , p8
  • As states of the human spirit democracy , righteousness, and faith have much in common and may be cultivated by the same means...
  • * 1919 , Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, The Spirit of Russia: Studies in History, Literature and Philosophy , Macmillan, p446
  • It must further be admitted that he provided a successful interpretation of democracy' in its philosophic aspects when he conceived '''democracy''' as a general outlook on the universe... In Bakunin's conception of ' democracy as religious in character we trace the influence of French socialism.
  • * 1996 , Petre Roman, The Spirit of Democracy and the Fabric of NATO - The New European Democracies and NATO Enlargement , p1
  • The spirit of democracy' means, above all, liberty of choice for human beings... ' democracy , in both its individual and collective forms, is the main engine of the eternal human striving for justice and prosperity.

    Synonyms

    * democratism (spirit of democracy)

    Coordinate terms

    * (a form of government) monarchy, aristocracy, dictatorship

    revolution

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A political upheaval in a government or nation state characterized by great change.
  • The removal and replacement of a government.
  • Rotation: the turning of an object around an axis.
  • * 1912 , P. M. Heldt, The Gasoline Automobile: Its Design and Construction, Volume II: Transmission, Running Gear and Control , The Horseless Age Co. (1913), page 147:
  • The ratio between the speeds of revolution of wheel and disc is substantially equal to the reciprocal of the ratio between the diameter of the wheel and the diameter of the mean contact circle on the disc.
  • A rotation: one complete turn of an object during rotation.
  • * 1864 , D. M. Warren, The Common-School Geography , Revised Edition, H. Cowperthwait & Co., page 6:
  • The Earth has two motions: a daily revolution (or turning around) upon its axis , and a yearly course around the sun.
  • * 1878 , George Fleming, A Text-Book of Veterinary Obstetrics , Baillière, Tindall, & Cox, page 123:
  • Numerous cases are recorded which incontestibly prove that during pregnancy, the uterus perform a half or even a complete revolution , on itself, producing torsion of the cervix
  • In the case of celestial bodies - the traversal of one body through an orbit around another body.
  • A sudden, vast change in a situation, a discipline, or the way of thinking and behaving.
  • Usage notes

    * Astronomers today do not use (term) to refer to the turning of an object about an axis: they use (rotation) for that, and (term) only for the traversal of a body through an orbit (which also happens around some axis). (This may be somewhat customary, however, strictly speaking, using either word for either process would not be incorrect.)

    Antonyms

    * evolution

    Derived terms

    * revolutionary * revolutionize Compounds * agricultural revolution * artistic revolution * French Revolution * Industrial Revolution * solid of revolution * information revolution