[freeforall]

The word is Greek, but translated literally means "people power” or “rule by people". Since the word was first used, but perhaps most frequently in the past century or two, the natural question asked by those who study government and society is: How do people rule in a democracy? How.
There have been many answers. Marxists, holding the decisions of the collective to be more important that the desires of the individual, have argued that, in a true democracy, the machinery of production - capital - should be owned by people collectively. According to the Marxists, the majority of people then decide how to use the capital for the benefit of the collective. This model of government, they call "social democracy".
Individualists, who hold the peaceful decisions of the individual to be more important than the desires of the collective have rejected democracy outright, on the ground that majority rule is logically inconsistent with individual freedom. Other individualists have nonetheless embraced democracy, but have instead argued that, in a real democracy, there are limits on the power of the majority. Those limits are typically cited to be individual rights or freedoms. In some cases, the limits are said to relate to an individual's rights of life, liberty and property. We typically find these advocates of democracy championing court-enforced bills of rights as limits on the law-making powers of legislatures. Such people sometimes call this understanding of democracy "liberal democracy".
I will have more later, must go for now.

[donh]

but have instead argued that, in a real democracy, there are limits on the power of the majority. Those limits are typically cited to be individual rights or freedoms.

You're still trying to pump the faucet to draw the water from the well. "Real" democracy is the direct democracy they had in Athens when the state ordered Socrates to commit suicide. What we have (or, at least, had) is a constitutionally limited republic. Your implication that "real" democracy somehow magically inherits individual rights is unsupported by practical examples. If you have individual rights, it's because you wrote up the framework of your laws to provide them, and you've worked your buns off to make 'em stick.