Quotes About Democracy

Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

While democracy must have its organization and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty.

The road to democracy is not a freeway. It is a toll road on which we pay by accepting and carrying out our civic responsibilities.

Man's capacity for evil makes democracy necessary and man's capacity for good makes democracy possible.

When the freedom they wished for most was the freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and never was free again.

Government in the last analysis is organised opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government, which sooner or later becomes autocratic government.

What I hear every day on talk radio is America's lack of education - and I don't mean lack of college degrees. I mean lack of the basic art of democracy, the ability to seek the great truths that can come only by synthesizing the small truths possessed by each of us.

Most liberal democracies don't try to figure out what the truth is.

Navigating a battle between partisan, progressive organizing and decentralized petition drives is, at bottom, like trying to choose between the Democratic Party and democracy. The ideas are on different planes.

We need to be constantly reminded that this is a representative democracy, and we need to be in tune to what people are talking about.

Pressure and protest is fine, but using fear and threats to force politicians to sing to a certain tune will be the death of our democracy.

I've always maintained there is no incompatibility between Islam and democracy. The Europeans in general confuse Islam and Islamism. Islamism is a political movement that instrumentalises the religion to get to power, which has nothing to do with religion. Islam here in Tunisia is a religion of openness, of tolerance.

I dream of a free, democratic, peaceful Tunisia, a country that can protect its developing identity.

In Tunisia, the so-called Yasmin revolution has led to the installation of a relatively moderate Islamic government. Whether or not that means democracy will, however, only be put to the test if and when the time comes for another election, which the opposition may win.

The appointment of judges to the higher judiciary cannot be the sole domain of a few members of the higher judiciary. This turf must be shared.

We need to have Turkey respect democracy, human rights, and fundamental freedoms.

I probably will not live to see Turkey become an exemplary democracy, but I pray that the downward authoritarian drift can be stopped before it is too late.

No one can take away the experience of Yeltsin's freedoms, but Russian democracy will never follow Western models: other authoritarian 'controlled democracies' - Turkey, Taiwan, Mexico - ultimately developed into democracies. But it took decades.

Turkey initiated true multiparty elections in 1950 to join NATO. As a requirement of its membership, NATO can and should demand that Turkey honor its commitment to the alliance's democratic norms.

Turkey shares Europe's fundamental values of democracy and the rule of law.

We, as Turkey, call on Europe to respect human rights and democracy.

There is a heated debate in Turkey these days over whether the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is furthering democracy or rolling it back.

Turkey and Brazil, though half a world apart geographically, have much in common. Both are large countries that spent long years under military dominance, but have broken with that history and made decisive steps towards full democracy.