No Hacker, it is not a democracy in the Marines. But if enough people approach the Headquarters of the Marine Corps and tell them that a policy is unnecessary or needs to be changed then it gets changed. Case in point? Enough Marines thought that the tattoo policy was too lax and it was getting out of hand so during Officer and NCO symposiums let their thoughts be known. What happened? The Commandant and the SgtMaj listened to the suggestions and tightened up the tattoo regulations.

Maybe we are a democracy. Whenever the Commandant (Or almost any high ranking officer) would address a group of Marines they would always take time to have an open forum with the Marines.