Democracy and where power resides ?

What is this thing called democracy. Is it a concept where the forces within a country are made more equitable and the powerful are called to authenticate their actions every four years in an election.
Where does true power reside, is it in the ballot box or is that just a charade.

In centuries gone by, power resided in the Mon achy with a hereditary system of interlocking family support which ensured that the heir's to power would always come from a small clique.
The powerful landowning aristocracy were guaranteed their lands and rewarded with more if they lent their support to the crown. Beneath them came the merchant class with money to expand their privileges as and when required. At the bottom of the pile came the workers, people who did a job, be it with a skill, such as the Blacksmith or work on the land. This arrangement, this hierarchy was set in stone for generations and only as the concept of a Parliament came into being was the Joker introduced.
Parliament of course was not representative of the people, its representative body was made up of the rich and the powerful. With Emancipation the power has been wrested from the few and now, through the ballot box, in part rests potentially with the voter.
We also know that to some degree it is still a charade and that power still resides with the hereditary class. 
Private Schooling where contacts are forged for life, the Boardroom selection system made up of friends of friends, the  school tie and a memory locker full of patronage.
Still we believe in our hard won right to vote and we go along with what the political class tell us in their manifesto how things will change for the better - just vote for me sir !!

Tehrir Square is yet another way of producing a democratic outcome. "People power" which by-passed the rich and the powerful, went straight for the jugular by overtly saying that the people in power were not representative.
They shifted the game onto another platform.   I wonder how  many leaders today are waking up with a sick feeling in their stomach, does this herald a new dawn where the Hirachy can be bypassed ??