Democracy is a system where the government implements the will of the majority and it is held accountable by the majority.
Western countries implement parliamentary democracy, and we now have ample evidence that this model of democracy does not work in practice. Western governments primarily represent the interests of the elites at the expense of the public as this study of US policy illustrates. US may be an extreme case, but similar situation is observed in most western nations.
Western chauvinists do not get to define whether other countries are democratic or not because western model itself is a failure.
People actually living in those countries get to define what their system is. Vast majority of Chinese citizens approve of their government, and think that it is in fact democratic.
i think Switzerland is the only true democracy. ROI is maybe a debatable case.
if you ask, for example the UK government (or someone who was taught in a UK school) which states are democracies, the answer you’ll get will just be a list of the UK’s allies.
politics uses “democracy” as a buzzword meaning good, right, friendly. they don’t associate it with any technical definition.