Usually, the word “democracy” is reduced to the word “elections” and here the field where the autocrats like to play.

That's the problem. For a functional country, or "democracy" for short, you need mechanisms to prevent a collapse into autocracy. And general participation of citizens in decision making, which is related to my second point.

What I mean by "slave mentality" is better described as "rejection of personhood". People supporting authoritarian governments reject their own status as a person, by rejecting their own (and everybody else's) political agency. Usually by looking for some great leader to be a saviour, as long as you keep your head down and obey.
Political rights are what makes you a full person in a society.