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Many countries include 'Democratic' or 'People's' in their names, even though they are not democratic and do not serve their people. Examples: Democratic People's Republic of Korea Lao People's Democratic Republic People's Democratic Republic of Algeria Democratic Republic of the Congo And German Democratic Republic (East Side) in 1949–1990. None of these states are democratic, power and wealth are concentrated in the hands of a small ruling elite. Who are they fooling with these names?
I can't speak for all nations but the Democratic Republic of the Congo was an actual democratic republic when it was named.
But it was too socialist for the US, who intervened with military force, executed the elected leader and installed a puppet dictator that was loyal to US corporate interests.
Looking it up now, Congo has removed Democratic from its name but still calls itself a Republic. A unitary executive appoints ministers, and a prime minister leads parliament. It does have multi-party elections, but, to quote Wikipedia, opposition parties are allowed, but are widely considered to have no chance of gaining power.
The current leader, Sassou Nguesso, is trying to change constitutional law so he can run another term.
There's two countries called congo, the democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Congo. Both still exist today, there was no name change.
Actually, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo are two separate countries that border each other.
Edit: Just to add to the confusion, there used to be more Republic of the Congos.