Let’s stick with Webster’s 1828 dictionary.
Revisionism is another thing that isn’t faintly conservative.
Why don't we stick with Samuel Johnson's 1755 Edition:
Demócracy. n.s. [δημοκρατία.] One of the three forms of government; that in which the sovereign power is neither lodged in one man, nor in the nobles, but in the collective body of the people.
While many of the servants, by industry and virtue, arrive at riches and esteem, then the nature of the government inclines to a democracy. Temple.
The majority having the whole power of the community, may employ all that power in making laws, and executing those laws; and there the form of the government is a perfect democracy. Locke.