Request for the Day

We hear it often - usually from governments who are criticized for their less than open and transparent political and economic systems:
"(Fill in Country)practices its own form of democracy."

Note to the media. Please stop repeating this stuff. Western democracies vary in their systems, but Russia, China, Iran and similar states do not practice "a form of democracy". They practice a form of government that is distinct from Western forms of democracy. They are not democratic systems regardless of what they say.