It is a shame then that very few countries can claim to actually be democratic then, since representative democracy is not true democracy.

It is closer to the ideal perhaps, but it is not truly for the people in a way that matters. Only direct democracies where people vote on policies etc are actual democracies, representative democracies tend to teater on that autocratic/totaletarian edge where the elected and unelected (at least by the people) representatives/government often enact policies and laws not in line with what people actually want, especially in first past the post systems with effectively only two parties.

There are still many problems even with direct democracy in this current system as capitalism allows those with the most money and to lie and influence, however, that’s true of representative democracy also, if not moreso in the case of bribes and lobbying.