Robert Dahl's term, literally 'rule by many', for a regime with elected officials, free and fair elections, near-universal suffrage, free expression, alternative information and autonomous associations. It describes real regimes that approximate democracy.
In more detail
Dahl reserved 'democracy' for an ideal of complete responsiveness to citizens as political equals and used 'polyarchy' for actual regimes that meet institutional thresholds of contestation and inclusiveness. The term appears in A Preface to Democratic Theory (1956) and was developed in Polyarchy (1971). Critics argue that polyarchy describes a procedural minimum that can coexist with large social and economic inequalities.