It's not democracy if there's only an upvote.

Odd, that’s exactly how we do things up here in Canada: You vote for the candidate you like. There is no way to vote against anybody.

Just like the HN front page, there is only room for the candidate who gets the most votes to win a seat in Parliament, so our democracy functions without downvotes.

How does it work where you live?

Getting only one vote is certainly not the same as being able to upvote many articles.

If each visitor to HN could only upvote one article a day then it would be similar.

And politicians aren't news articles. So how is it that you get to draw a parallel between Politicsand a web site when it suits the point you wish to make, but when someone retorts in kind, you claim they are more different than similar?

If what you are trying to say is that it's not democracy regrdless of how the arrows work, I agree. It's not democracy because it isn't a system of social governance.

Sure there is, upvote something else you think is more interesting!