At play here is the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions for democracy to be genuine.
There are a vast number of ways in which people can be denied a legitimate opportunity to obtain the policies most want (making a democracy less legitimate), but to list a few:
* People are allowed to vote, but votes aren't counted fairly.
* The voting system can be vulnerable to vote splitting (e.g. First Past the Post) or have other vulnerabilities that can lead to an outcome where the majority would have supported candidate A over candidate B, but B wins. This can lead to dynamics where tactical voting means only the candidates endorsed by the two best known parties have a chance, even if both of those parties are captured by minority interests. Generally the duopoly perpetuate the poor voting system to protect their interests.
* The leaders of any movements challenging the incumbents can be targeted before they have a chance to run - e.g. with trumped up legal charges, defamatory claims, violence either blatantly from the government, or by supporters which goes unpunished / is pardoned.
* Voters fear that if they vote against the incumbent, they'll face consequences.
* Voter demographics considered less likely to support the incumbent face barriers to vote, such as demands to provide documentation they might not have.
* Special case: Voting is restricted to citizens, but there are populations of people who live long term in the country but don't get a vote. Citizenship is not granted to or even stripped from people who are considered less likely to support the incumbent.
* Media is state owned, and is biased towards the incumbent, preventing the public from learning about alternative policy platforms in a meaningful way.
* Media is privately owned, and biased towards the interests of the owners of the media, preventing the public from learning about policy platforms opposed to the owner in a meaningful way.
* There are significant barriers to becoming a candidate (financial, or requiring a lot of work which costs a lot of money), preventing non-wealthy groups from being able to run.
* Corporations or ultra-wealthy are allowed to selectively fund large amounts of money (beyond the means of normal citizens), allowing policy platforms they support to drown out policy platforms in the interest of the public.
* As you mentioned, electorate boundaries are set in an unfair way (gerrymandering).
There are a lot more - but the summary is that there are many ways to undermine a democracy, and there are many countries that are nominally democratic, but aren't really.
There are a vast number of ways in which people can be denied a legitimate opportunity to obtain the policies most want (making a democracy less legitimate), but to list a few:
* People are allowed to vote, but votes aren't counted fairly.
* The voting system can be vulnerable to vote splitting (e.g. First Past the Post) or have other vulnerabilities that can lead to an outcome where the majority would have supported candidate A over candidate B, but B wins. This can lead to dynamics where tactical voting means only the candidates endorsed by the two best known parties have a chance, even if both of those parties are captured by minority interests. Generally the duopoly perpetuate the poor voting system to protect their interests.
* The leaders of any movements challenging the incumbents can be targeted before they have a chance to run - e.g. with trumped up legal charges, defamatory claims, violence either blatantly from the government, or by supporters which goes unpunished / is pardoned.
* Voters fear that if they vote against the incumbent, they'll face consequences.
* Voter demographics considered less likely to support the incumbent face barriers to vote, such as demands to provide documentation they might not have.
* Special case: Voting is restricted to citizens, but there are populations of people who live long term in the country but don't get a vote. Citizenship is not granted to or even stripped from people who are considered less likely to support the incumbent.
* Media is state owned, and is biased towards the incumbent, preventing the public from learning about alternative policy platforms in a meaningful way.
* Media is privately owned, and biased towards the interests of the owners of the media, preventing the public from learning about policy platforms opposed to the owner in a meaningful way.
* There are significant barriers to becoming a candidate (financial, or requiring a lot of work which costs a lot of money), preventing non-wealthy groups from being able to run.
* Corporations or ultra-wealthy are allowed to selectively fund large amounts of money (beyond the means of normal citizens), allowing policy platforms they support to drown out policy platforms in the interest of the public.
* As you mentioned, electorate boundaries are set in an unfair way (gerrymandering).
There are a lot more - but the summary is that there are many ways to undermine a democracy, and there are many countries that are nominally democratic, but aren't really.