All governments are based on violence but democracy brings that violence under the control of the people
And a liberal democracy has extensive controls on violence to protect unpopular minorities
Up until 1960, the Western nations were uncomfortable with sex. Since 1960 they've become comfortable with sex but they've become uncomfortable with violence. This sometimes makes it difficult to think clearly about the differences between a dictatorship and a democracy. All human governments ultimately rely on the threat of violence to maintain control. Democracy does not mean pacifism. The word “Democracy” means that the violence is brought under the control of the majority. The phrase “Liberal Democracy” specifically means there are additional constraints on the majority so that the majority is not able to use the violence freely against unpopular minority factions. In a Liberal Democracy, the majority shapes the law, and the law shapes when the violence is allowed to be used, and an independent judiciary oversees the application of the violence and gives people a chance to defend themselves from the violence. But the government is still fundamentally based on the threat of violence. Discomfort with violence sometimes keep people from clearly seeing the benefits of democracy. A democracy is not a society without violence, it is a society where that violence has been brought under control, hopefully in ways that are socially beneficial.