Quotes About Democracy

Through the inspiration of Vaclav's words, the courage of his dissidence and the integrity of his leadership, Czechoslovakia successfully transitioned from an authoritarian state to a free democracy at the heart of Europe.

free relationship—" "Truly free relationships are also responsible ones. Any attempt to deemphasize the true community of the universal Church in favor of the supposedly more democratic model of regional churches is a grave mistake. One of the consistent tactics of tyranny is to divide and neutralize its opponents, to isolate those movements or voices that stand in opposition to the dissolving of identity.

The foundation of democracy is conscience—personal responsibility. The society that abandons moral absolutes must eventually degenerate into a police state. Well, this nation has abandoned morality. Is it realistic to think we can avoid the consequences?

If we are committed to discerning, then defeating, the contemporary logic of racism, we must separate it from its ties to democracy itself. In order to be true patriots, we must become disloyal to chronically prejudiced views of American society that persist in our rather ignoble Trumpian moment.

in a true democracy, things are often messy, ...you often don't get what you want or deserve immediately, and... you have to constantly engage, protest, resist, and negotiate.

There is no such thing as "people power" (democracy). The world is run by oligarchs for oligarchs. You have all been conned. You are all slaves of capitalism. You are ruled by a psychopathic elite just as your ancestors were. Nothing has changed, except the tactics of the elite. The weak, passive, submissive masses still go on being ruled by an elite few. They love it!

Democracy" literally means "people power" (demos – people; kratos = power). It was designed to stop rule by the rich elite. Look at"democratic" America. Who runs it? The rich elite – the top 1%!!! Why haven't the dumb "democrats" worked out that the elite have conned them yet again?!

Not only does free trade have nothing to do with democracy, but in most cases throughout history the two have been inimical. Free trade prospered only at the expense of democracy and the freedom of the majority.

The greatest delusion of this generation is that democracy still works when both the Congress and the presidency are blatantly influenced by corporate money.

An unrestrained security apparatus has throughout history been one of the principal reasons that free governments have failed.

James Madison's logic in 1787 still holds, a further offering of this form will someday be made available to the world. Madison states: …extend the sphere and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult to all who feel it to discover their own strength and to act in unison with each other.42

People living in democratic republics should know not only of its origins but also of the imperfect democratic struggle it spawned. Such appreciation might alleviate the taking of one's way of life for granted.

The twentieth century possessed a clear-cut purpose—the unquestioned victory of democracy—the accomplishment of which resulted in a gift to the world. The century's greatest heroes reflect the triumph of a democratic way of life over totalitarianism.

Corren tiempos peligrosos para la democracia. Puede apreciarse dicha amenaza en el crecimiento de la xenofobia y del apoyo popular a figuras autocráticas que ponen a prueba los límites de las normas democráticas. Estas tendencias son preocupantes ya de por sí, pero igual de alarmante es el hecho de que los partidos y los políticos tradicionales comprendan tan poco y tan mal el descontento que está agitando las aguas de la política en todo el mundo.

Der Kritisch-Aufgeklärte wird zunächst felsenfest behaupten, es gäbe keine Zensur in einer Demokratie, und wenn man ihm dann Beispiele nennt, wird er ungerührt erklären, dass es gut sei, wenn gewisse Tatsachen und Ansichten nicht veröffentlicht würden.

People will say with a straight face that having one choice for dear leader is tyranny – but having two is freedom.

in a democracy someone is setting the guidelines for everyone else. Elitist rule is inevitable.

Those who need leaders are not qualified to choose them. In a sense, asking people to make political decisions is like asking them to forecast the weather. They're not in a position to do so, and it is silly to expect them to. Democracy entails people who run their businesses well being forced to run their businesses poorly by people who can't run businesses at all.

Arms control [that is, the Cold War treaties regulating U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals] did not end the Cold War. Rather, it was the collapse of communism and the emergence of democracy within the Soviet Union and then Russia that suspended the international rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. If a new nationalist dictatorship eventually consolidates in Russia, we will go back to spending trillions on defense to deter a rogue state with thousands of nuclear weapons.

A new ideological struggle has emerged between Russia and the West, not between communism and capitalism but between democracy and autocracy.

History shows that democracies rarely go to war with each other.6 So a democratic Russia would no longer be an enemy of the United States. A

A new ideological struggle has emerged between Russia and the West, not between communism and capitalism but between democracy and autocracy. Putin also has championed a new set of populist, nationalist, conservative ideas antithetical to the liberal, international order anchored by the United States. Putinism now has admirers in Western democracies, just as communism did during the Cold War. Europe is divided again between East and West; the line has just moved farther east.

As you have fewer and fewer voices in a democracy, in a free society, it's not good to limit the number of voices.

A majority of this country opposes this war, a majority of this country never voted for this administration.