Provided the leaders are elected in free and open election in which all the adult citizens of a country can participate, the government is a Democracy. However where there is no universal election of leaders by ALL the people (eg China) the government is a Dictatorship. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The form of government in which "the power belongs to the people" is called a Democracy. It is a political form of government carried out either directly by the people (direct democracy) or by means of elected representatives of the people, as if the people and the elected person were one.