Democracy is a political method, that is to say, a certain type of institutional arrangement for arriving at political -- legislative and administrative -- decisions and hence incapable of being an end in itself.
Source: Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, ch. 20, sct. 3, 1942.
-- Joseph A Schumpeter, (Feb 8 1883-1950), Moravian-US economist, sociologist; He was well known for his theories of capitalist development and business cycles.