Originally posted by Coyote
How can a country be a democracy when it has de facto control over territories that have say in that control.
How can a country be a democracy when different ethnic groups have different sets of rights in terms of citizenship, land ownership, schooling, building permits and the ability to expand their villages, etc etc.
The answer is - it CAN be a democracy, and is - it's just not what we think of and what we (the west) strive for - a society that is free, open, with equal rights for all groups.
Nope. The right answer is:
The ancient city-state of Athens, the United States pre-1960's, Nazi Germany, South Africa under Apartheid and the state of Israel did/does not meet the definition of the democratic state formulated by political science which includes all the points you cited among others.
Contrary to popular belief, all those states cited above were/is ethnocratic states based on the
AUTHORITARIAN,
DICTATORIAL political supression of the undesired ethnicity.
Pay attention to this definition of dictatorship:
Dictatorship is a form of government that has the power to govern without consent of those being governed.
Notice that the definition does not apply
ONLY to those states that exclude the totality of its population from the electoral process.
Whether the whole population or just a specific ethnic group is subjected to political disenfranchisement is
IRRELEVANT to the authoritarian, dictatorial nature of the state.
The jewish racial dictatorship governs and controls Western and Eastern Palestine respectively against the wishes of virtually all Palestinians both Israeli citizens (who repeatedly call for the creation of a unitary democratic state comprising the entire region of Palestine) and those living in the territories and around the world.
So Israel fits the definition above to a tee.