Nicholas asked:

Using the Oxford dictionary definition of democracy (government by the people) can societies with
great disparities in wealth legitimately call themselves democracies?

============

I fear they can. I think your definition is along the right lines. However, in most democratic systems
government is by most of the people, not by all of them, otherwise everyone would need to agree
about everything all the time, and that ain't ever happening. Moreover, in the UK, where we have
universal adult suffrage, our use of the first past the post system means that government is quite
often by a minority. This leaves ample scope for some members of the polity to oppress other
members, including in the matter of wealth disparity. So, as long as you don't think democracy is only
exists in an unattainably ideal world of perpetual unanimity, then for practical purposes, many
societies with hideous disparities of wealth can legitimately call themselves democracies. Not, I
hasten to add, that this legitimizes the disparities.

Richard Craven