Let's keep in mind that "democracy", as it was originally constructed, was effectively somewhere between oligarchy and plutocracy. Approximately 3% of the population had the vote. I've been saying for 20 years that we are not far off from the origins.

> countries which describe themselves as “democracies”

I thought it was common knowledge that any country that has the word "democratic" in its official name is anything but. Same for "republic". And for the true bottom of the barrel, "people's".

It may be high time to add "united" to that list.