Outline the basic principles of democracy

Democracy is the political system through which political sovereignty is exercised by the country's citizens, who make decisions together or through representatives elected by the people.

Democracy requires certain fundamental principles to be considered as such, which are:

-Equality of citizens in terms of voting, that is, freedom and equality in the right to political participation.

-a system of entrenched political parties that allows channeling the ideologies of its citizens.

-a fair electoral system that allows the popular will to be faithfully represented.

In case any of these principles is not fulfilled, we cannot speak of a full democracy.

The United States became an empire in 1898 when we annexed Hawai’i and the Spanish overseas empire. When we annexed Alaska, as a non-contiguous territory, we were on the way to empire. When we annexed distant tropical islands we were there. Over the next decades we created Panama and annexed part of it, we occupied Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and we intervened in Mexico, China, and Russia. After WWII we adopted neo-imperial, indirect methods and engaged in horribly bloody, proxy wars with the Soviets. Since the end of the Cold War, we have returned to more direct interventions. But, because these do not involve direct annexation of foreign territories, they are not truly imperial. They need a prefix, neo-, semi-, post-, or something else.

I hope it helps!