James Burnham Quotes

Neither current events nor history shows that the majority rules, or ever did rule.

In an autocracy, one person has his way; in an aristocracy a few people have their way; in a democracy no one has his way.

Under universal suffrage the elected are those who know best how to take in the masses. The minority, which may happen to be the half minus one, is sacrificed.

A democracy is a state which recognizes the subjection of the minority to the majority, that is, an organization for the systematic use of violence by one class against the other, by one part of the population against another.

The majority of people wherever found ought in all questions to govern the minority.

Parliamentary government is simply a mild and disguised form of compulsion. We agree to try strength by counting heads instead of breaking heads, but the principle is exactly the same... The minority gives way not because it is convinced that it is wrong, but because it is convinced that it is a minority.

How can we even call this a Democracy when the House, the Senate, the White House, and now the Supreme Court are all controlled by the representatives of a minority group in America?

Governments are not representative. They have their own power, serving segments of the population that are dominant and rich.

The majority does not rule in America, but the minority shouldn't hijack it. And it's because we're afraid. They have isolated us and made us feel as though we're alone. We're not.

The paradox of American democracy has been that its slogan of equal opportunity has meant, often, equal opportunity to get power over your fellows.

Subordinate classes have usually pushed for democracy, dominant classes nearly always have resisted it.

At times those who won, 51 percent of the population claim the right to ride roughshod over the other 49 percent.

Government is everywhere to a great extent controlled by powerful minorities, with an interest distinct from that of the mass of the people.

Our nation has in 300 years grown apart from even the democratic ideals of other peoples. In some of them class government still lingers; in others, democracy is little better than oligarchy.

In the United States, where the numerical majority have long been in full possession of collective despotism, they would probably be as unwilling to part with it as a single despot or an aristocracy.

51 percent of the people should not always get 100% of the power; 51 percent of the people should certainly not get all the power if they use that power to exclude the 49%. In that case, we do not have majority rule. We have majority tyranny.

It cannot be denied with truth, that this new constitution is, in its first principles, most highly and dangerously, oligarchic.

The minority must bow to the majority.

Because the rich are generally few in number, while the poor are many, they appear to be antagonistic, and as the one or the other prevails they form the government. Hence arises the common opinion that there are two kinds of government - democracy and oligarchy.

It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.

When you're in the minority, it doesn't matter what you're agenda is, you're not going to have the degree of freedom that you have as a member of the majority.

Democracy cannot survive without the guidance of a creative minority.

As long as there are only 3 to 4 people on the floor, the country is in good hands. It's only when you have 50 to 60 in the Senate that you want to be concerned.

The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.

The purpose of the minority is to become the majority.