Which country is the largest democracy in the world?

The largest democracy in the world is India. India is regarded as the largest democracy due to having the largest number of eligible voters and conducting the largest electoral exercises globally. India is a federal parliamentary democratic republic where the President of India is the head of state and the Prime Minister of India is the head of government. India adopted its democratic form of governance in 1950 when it declared itself a republic and adopted its constitution, which laid out the structure of its democracy.

Extra: Democracy refers to a form of government where the power to govern is vested in the hands of the people. The term democracy comes from the Greek words 'demos' (meaning 'people') and 'kratos' (meaning 'power'). In democracies, the principle of political equality is paramount, and often the government is elected through a process of free and fair elections. Democracies typically protect the freedoms and rights of individuals, which is enshrined in a constitution or a similar foundational document.

India's democratic system is characterized by a multiparty system, where numerous parties compete in state and national elections. Its electoral process is held at different levels, including the central or national level (to elect members to the Lok Sabha — the lower house of the Parliament), the state level (to elect legislative assemblies), and local levels (to elect municipal and panchayat officials). The scale of India's electoral operations, with millions of voting stations and hundreds of millions of voters, makes its elections the largest organized collective human activity in the world.