Alfred Maurice de Zayas Quotes

Ours is a fully democratic government, which in our language we call a people's government.

A pure democracy is generally a very bad government, It is often the most tyrannical government on earth; for a multitude is often rash, and will not hear reason.

Well, I would say that we've got to redefine democracy, that we have been stuck in concepts of representative democracy, that we believe that it's getting other people to do things for us that we progress.

If democracy is control by the people, as it is supposed to be, it is the right form of government. I believe in a complete democracy - individual, political, social, economic. If we really had that, which we don't now, it would be in harmony with divine purpose.

Decision by democratic majority vote is a fine form of government, but it's a stinking way to create.

The government must give men and women without power a real say over what happens to them, and the means of engaging in a participative, invigorated and living democracy.

To take an analogy: if we say that a democratic government is the best kind of government, we mean that it most completely fulfills the highest function of a government - the realisation of the will of the people.

A messy participatory process is representative democracy at its best.

A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.

The word democracy comes from the Greek and means, literally, government by the people.

Sure the people are stupid: the human race is stupid. Sure Congress is an inefficient instrument of government. But the people are not stupid enough to abandon representative government for any other kind, including government by the guy who knows.

The Cherokees, the only tribe I know to be contemplating the establishment of regular laws, magistrates, and government, propose a government of representatives, elected from every town. But of all things, they least think of subjecting themselves to the will of one man.

No error is more common than to confound democracy as an element in national character with democracy as a form of government.… Now the two are not only not identical, but they are not even necessarily coexistent. By the former we understand that spirit in a people which leads them to demand equality among citizens and a substantial control over their own affairs; by the latter, a system in which the people pronounce directly on all the details of government.

We can conceive of various kinds of democracy.

You cannot have a government for and by the people if it is not represented by all of the people.

Democratic government requires the consent of the governed.

Democracy is better than tyranny.

The greater the share the people have in government, the less liberty, civil or religious, does a nation enjoy.

Democracy -- rule by the people -- sounds like a fine thing; we should try it sometime in America.

We cannot have government for all the people until we first make certain it is government of and by all the people.

Democracy is the best form of the worst type of government

A perfect democracy is therefore the most shameless thing in the world.

The American government is a rule of the people, by the people, for the bosses.

In effect the people were present through their representatives, and were themselves, step by step and point by point, acting in the conduct of public affairs. No longer merely an ultimate check on government, they were in some sense the government.

I believe in Democracy because it releases the energies of every human being.