The Bare Minimum We Need to Call Something a Democracy

What is the bare minimum we need to call something a democracy? And argument goes, when following an election, the incumbents lose power. But it's not quite as straightforward as that, because there are many types of regime that seem to occupy a middle ground between the minimal definition of democracy and failing even to meet the minimal definitionof democracy. The slightly jargony term in political scienceis competitive authoritarian regimes where there is a kind of competition but no genuine choice.