Is democracy an elected form of dictatorship?

We are conditioned to believe that a dictator is a very bad person. We immediately think of Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin or Mao Zedong who were responsible for millions of deaths of their own people. So, who is a dictator? " When there is no turnover in power of the executive, then it's a dictatorship," defines Natasha Ezrow, senior lecturer at the University of Essex. Dictators have cost millions of deaths - 49 million in Russia under Stalin, 30 million in China under Mao and some 3 million in Cambodia under Pol Pot. Even today 106 nations, or 54% of countries, are under full or partial dictatorships, comprising of two-thirds of the world's population, of whom 2 billion are under oppressive rule. If dictators are so nasty why do people tolerate them? Because a small group of people will profit hugely from the absolute powers of a dictator and support him to the death. " When you depend on the support of very few people to stay in power, then the efficient way to govern is through corruption, bribery, blackmail, extortion and so forth," says Prof de Mesquita," You can keep a small group of people loyal by paying them really well." Can you not bribe a majority of people to stay on in power? Hugo Chavez won elections by using Venezuela's oil money for social schemes, making him hugely popular with the poor. He easily won a referendum to change the constitution so that he could stand for a third term. His social policies led to high inflation, increase in crime and waste of massive amounts of money, supplying cheap oil to neighboring countries, in trying to build a consensus against the US. Today Venezuela is an economic basket case after oil prices fell but if Chavez was alive to run for president he would most probably win again. So was he a democrat or a dictator? The same is the case with Turkey. President Erdogan keeps winning elections by exploiting other groups, by using religion and by demonising the army. The fall in the price of oil, which devastated Venezuela, has been a boon for Turkey but for how long? Is dictatorship confined within national boundaries? China has a change of government every 10 years but citizens have little power as proved by the lack of information about the recent ferry disaster. China aggressively claims territory of its neighbors, which made Philippines President Aquino compare it to Nazi Germany. Can a nation be democratic at home while behaving as a dictatorship outside its borders? The US claims the right to attack any country for its gain and has slaughtered millions in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan and Iraq. It uses drones to kill suspected terrorists in other countries, killing scores of innocent civilians in the process. Is it an international dictatorship? Perhaps the difference between a dictator and a democrat depends on wealth - if the country is poor then the dictator kills within his own borders, if it is rich then he kills abroad, and is know as a democrat.