Japan is a democracy.

I'll give you that one. If a nation is bombed to the edge of oblivion, occupied for 20 years, and Douglas MacArthur rises from his tomb (I'm convinced that he'd try it, too, if it were possible), the conditions might again arise for that exception.

S Korea is democracy

They're finally becoming a real one, maybe.

the number of democracies is growing- it is spreading like a disease.

What an image. Polio, smallpox or AIDS? Do you think that maybe you might possibly learn to be a little more discriminating in your choice of figures of speech? Sheesh!

show me one democracy in which the people chose it for themselves

Well, technically, Athens, but that was a prototype, and hardly what we'd recognize today. Let's see...

The United States. Great Britain (after a long evolution). Most of the nations of Europe, gradually. Canada. Australia. New Zealand. India, imperfectly, but still hanging on. Israel. Iran, in the early 1950s (search "Mossadeq".) I'm certain I've missed a few.

You mistake good leadership for "making decisions for the larger population of people". Democratically inclined nations will allow leaders whose overall philosophy supports the will of the people to lead them. Whenever the people prefer a demagogue or a dictator, one will appear to assume the honor. This is one of the many lessons we can learn by studying Rome.

Regards--
Mary Anne