Quotes About Democracy

An avid reader, he found himself agreeing with the former Soviet dissident turned Israeli political figure Natan Sharansky, whose The Case for Democracy (2004) distinguished between "free societies," where dissent flourished, and "fear societies," where unpopular opinions risked imprisonment and death.

Celebrity distorts democracy by giving the rich, beautiful, and famous more authority than they deserve.

Diez mil nacionalistas contrarios a los Estados Unidos y la democracia, y partidarios de los nazis, marcharon por la avenida Santa Fe, gritando desafiantemente: '¡Muerte a los cerdos ingleses!','Muerte a los judíos!' y '¡Neutralidad y Castillo!'".

The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy." Woodrow Wilson, twenty-eighth President of the United States of America. Served 1913–1921. President during World War I, only President to be interred within Washington, DC, at the National Cathedral.

Once the philosophical foundation of democracy has collapsed, the statement that dictatorship is bad is rationally valid only for those who are not its beneficiaries, and there is no theoretical obstacle to the transformation of this statement into its opposite.

Terror is nothing other than prompt, stern, inflexible justice; terror thus issues from virtue; it is less a particular maxim than a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to the most pressing needs of the fatherland.

No one can define or measure justice, democracy, security, freedom, truth, or love. No one can define or measure any value. But if no one speaks up for them, if systems aren't designed to produce them, if we don't speak about them and point toward their presence or absence, they will cease to exist.

Although the protesters in Egypt and neighboring countries are calling for democratic reforms, in reality they are calling for better economic life. Democracy is only a means to an end. I believe the driving forces behind the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings are economical. A chronic high unemployment combined with an inflation in food prices is a volatile mix that can lead to major civic outbursts.

Countries that try to spread their ideologies by force, be it religion, socialism, capitalism, democracy or something else, will be overwhelmed by the human and economic cost of conflicts. Those countries will lag behind other countries that are focusing on developing their economies and advancing their interests via global partnerships and trade.

The historical crusades against Muslim lands, the colonization of Spain by the Muslim Moors and India by the British were all driven by economic interests, despite the advertised reasons that were used to mobilize their armies at the time. In my opinion, the invasion of Iraq was not about spreading democracy or weapons of mass destruction, it was about the oil.

Our only hope is to control the vote.

That's what my Dad always told me, on the ballot, they should always have a third choice, like none of the above, then if enough people picked that, they'd have to get new candidates.

But democracy is alive and well, as long as there's an open bar.

The damage that Stephen Harper has managed to inflict on so many aspects of Canadian democracy in just a few short years is frightening. That we have failed to stop it from happening, even more

the leader of a so-called democracy who ignores the will of the majority or fears criticism of his actions must resort to slinking in the shadows and to tightly controlling access to himself and to his ministers. Such is Stephen Harper's government.

I think that we vote, not to get the best party in, but to keep the worst party out.

if people are resistant to education and cling to their varying whims, they are likely to swarm around a charismatic figure and thereby risk letting democracy mutate into tyranny.

Democratic principles are the result of equality of condition.

My friends, you don't need to do nation building in Israel. We're already built. You don't need to export democracy to Israel. We've already got it. And you don't need to send American troops to Israel. We defend ourselves.

To protect civilians, the state needs sometimes to do things that are contrary to democratic behavior. It is true that in units like ours the outer limits can become blurred. That's why you must be sure that your people are of the best quality. The dirtiest actions should be carried out by the most honest men.

If you want to get the best people to run for office, weve got to make the rules easier, and simpler, and more understandable to get on the ballot.

I don't believe that government is good at picking technology, particularly technology that is changing. By the time you get it done and go through democracy, it's so outdated.

a country can be too small, too socially knitted, too tightly tied for its own good. Strong social networks can, in certain circumstances, turn to incestuous corruption and the shutting down of democratic discourse. You

The role of democracy is not to banish disagreement but rather to prevent political disagreements from devolving into armed conflict.