Democracy Quotes
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Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.
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The birth of democracy in Iraq is one of the great positive changes of our era.
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In some ways, political decency is a sign of a healthy democracy, but in other ways, it is the cause of it.
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If Despotism failed only for want of a capable benevolent despot, what chance has Democracy, which requires a whole population of capable voters.
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Philadelphia, the foundation of freedom, liberty and democracy, I still believe in the idea of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
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Transparency in government, no less than transparency in choosing government, remains a vital national interest in a democracy.
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Because of our Congressional committee system, our government is closer to a gerontocracy than a democracy.
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People cannot be free unless they are willing to sacrifice some of their interests to guarantee the freedom of others. The price of democracy is the ongoing pursuit of the common good by all of the people.
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Today the United States has the highest prison population in the world, over 2.1 million people. ... We lock people up at a rate that is seven to ten times that of any other democracy.
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I've never understood multi-party democracy. It's hard enough with two parties.
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It's symbolic of how I feel, with cameras on every street corner. Being watched all the time, having my sense of freedom invaded. Privacy is an important thing, and it has been eroded over the past few years. Now they're talking about body scans at airports. Democracy becomes a sham the second you have to give way to authorities who can do any kind of search that they want with you.
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The exercise of true leadership is inversely proportional to the exercise of power.
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The practical core of democracy, defined functionally, is the peaceful exchange of power between different groups of powerful political players arranged in parties.
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I think that's what we don't understand as human beings is this is America. It's a democracy. Once we get whoever we want into the White House, even the person we want to get in the White House doesn't get in the White House. We have every right to not only criticize that person but demand that person does what it is we need to get done. That just happens with us mobilizing and us using our voices to talk to the mayors, the governors and the presidents.
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We’re at a point in history that whether the Internet is going to evolve in a way that’s compatible with democracy and human rights is really kind of up in the air.
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Democracy maintains that government is established for the benefit of the individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protecting the individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protecting the rights of the individual and his freedom in the exercise of his abilities. Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice.
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It will be difficult, even painful, but democracy will prevail in Russia. There will be no dictatorship, although relapses into authoritarianism are possible.
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Cities are those laboratories of democracy that states used to be.
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I am convinced that the majority of American people do understand that we have a moral responsibility to foster the concepts of opportunity, free enterprise, the rule of law, and democracy. They understand that these values are the hope of the world.
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Socialism is the completion of democracy, not the negation of it.
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China more than two milleniums ago had already considered the idea of democracy, but at that time she could not put it into operation.
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In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued – they may be essential to survival.
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To include freedom in the very definition of democracy is to define a process not by its actual characteristics as a process but by its hoped for results. This is not only intellectually invalid, it is, in practical terms, blinding oneself in advance to some of the unwanted consequences of the process.
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Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that citizens share in a common life.
